The Freedom Games
by ewebster123
Summary: Have you ever wanted freedom? How much would you do to get it? Would you kill for it? Would you betray for it? In here, you don't have a choice. Welcome to the Freedom Games, where you fight to win your freedom and if you don't win… death. Discontinued? Maybe.
1. Chapter 1

**Well okay, this is one of my first stories (second) so please don't be too harsh. :) Oh and by the way, it will take a few chapters before I get to the actual Freedom Games so stick with me.**

**The Freedom Games**

Raphael quickly dodged to the left, just missing the massive fist that came down at the exact same spot where he had been seconds before. Clenching his teeth in a fierce snarl, Raphael rushed forward and kicked his opponent in the chest, sending him stumbling back a couple feet with a grunt.

His opponent was one known as Gormandor, a massive creature nine feet tall. Gormandor's head was that of a boar with four long, curving tusks and sharp teeth. The upper half of his body was human-like with the exception of sharp claws on his fingers and thick, dark brown hair. The lower half of his body was like a boar's, including the tail. He wore light armor on his shoulders, forearms, and a circular plate of armor around his neck, protecting his neck and upper chest. Around his waist were metal plates going all around his body, protecting his thighs as well as modesty.

"Come on Raph! You can do it!" Leo called out to him in encouragement. His other brothers shouted similar encouragement, while Splinter watched on silently, the look in his eyes encouragement enough. Standing alongside them was a rabbit creature giving equal encouragement.

Usagi had been the first to complete his match and had quickly been joined by Leonardo, Michelangelo, Splinter, and lastly, Donatello. All of them had completed their matches with ease and were moving into the next round. Raphael it seemed had been the odd one out and had been the only one to have an extremely difficult opponent. Gormandor was fast, strong, and very skilled, as well a great deal smarter than he appeared. Panting hard, Raphael took a step back, thinking his next move out. He had to finish this quick, or else he wouldn't be moving on.

Recovering from Raphael's kick, Gormandor let out a boar-like roar before charging at Raph, head down, tusks glinting. Thinking quickly, Raphael ran at him before jumping over him at the last minute. Gormandor pulled up short, trying to figure out where Raph had gone. Taking advantage of his momentary confusion, Raphael quickly ran at him, off to his left side slightly. When he was a few feet away, he went into a slide, dug his right sai into the earth, grabbed it with both hands and spun his body around- tripping Gormandor- before pulling it out and flipping expertly back onto his feet half a second before Gormandor hit the ground.

Then, before he could get back up, Raphael flipped onto his chest and pointed a sai to his face. Realizing he was beaten, Gormandor relaxed, letting his head fall back to the ground. The Gyoji suddenly appeared in a flash of blue light, floating down to them.

"The winner is Hamato Raphael of dimension Third Earth," he announced. His brothers and Usagi cheered for him. Raphael got off of Gormandor and helped to pull him to his feet. Facing each other, they both bowed before straightening again.

"You fight well," Gormandor said in his gruff, deep voice. "Thanks, you're not half bad yourself," Raphael said with a smile. "Don't get too cocky. I'll be sure to beat you next time," he answered, a competitive glimmer in his eyes. "Don't worry, I won't. And don't let this loss get you too down either," Raphael responded with a smirk. The boar faced being gave a laugh. "Don't worry about me. I've taken harder falls then that," he said.

Turning, Raphael walked over to his brothers, sensei, and Usagi. As he did his eyes met Splinter's and he saw something that made the fire inside of him burn a little fiercer; pride. And he knew why, too. The last move that he had used to bring Gormandor down had been one he had made up himself. It had taken him three months to get it right, but it had finally paid off, just in time for the Battle Nexus Tournament. Splinter knew this too, and he was especially proud of him.

"Dude, that last move was awesome! When did Splinter teach you that?!" Mikey asked eagerly. "He didn't. I made it up," Raph answered. "You made it up?" Mikey's eyes widened, "Wow, I didn't think you that smart." "Don't get too over confident, Mike. I'm not going to lose to you again," Raphael replied. "Hah. Yeah right. I'd like to see you try," Mikey said, puffing out his chest. "Okay you two, save it for the next rounds," Donny said scornfully, "Speaking of which, I think it's time to get going," he looked up at the Gyoji, who nodded.

With a wave of his paddle, all of them-including Gormandor and Usagi- were enveloped in a blue light and then disappeared. Reappearing, Raphael squinted out at the bright light as he and his brothers found themselves in the Battle Nexus ring. There were at several thousand people up in the stands watching and cheering, if not more, and for the first time that trip Raphael began to feel a little nervous.

He was going to kill himself he lost to Mikey again. That had been so embarrassing. _But that was three years ago. I'm a lot stronger now and he's not going to catch me off guard again,_ Raphael thought encouragingly to himself. It was true, he HAD learned a lot. Enough to beat even Leo in a sparring match or two. Although, he really had to give a lot of credit to Splinter. If he hadn't allowed for them to come back to the tournament after what had happened last time, he probably wouldn't have trained so hard in anticipation, poured over books on ancients masters, and begun experimenting with new techniques and fighting styles. Yes, if Splinter hadn't allowed it- with the help of some encouragement from his four sons- it might have been very different. But none of that mattered now. All that mattered was him and winning this tournament- or die if Mikey won again.

Looking up, he saw the Ultimate Daimyo looking down on the competitors from his high vantage point. Raphael half listened as he congratulated the competitors who had won and thanked those who had lost for competing, as well as welcomed all who had come to enjoy the games.

Looking around the arena, he studied his fellow opponents. Aside from his brothers, sensei, and Usagi- all of which he knew to be skilled- , there were four other competitors that struck him as challenging opponents.

There was a spike covered creature equipped with armored plating, sharp claws, razor-like teeth, and a reptilian appearance.

There also was a competitor with two one foot long fangs that dipped below its lower jaw. It also had two shorter fangs in between the two long ones on the top row and four much shorter ones along the bottom row in the front and other short teeth along both the upper and lower jaws. Along its back and down its tail were long spikes and it also possessed bat-like wings. It too had a reptilian appearance with scaly skin.

Glaring fiercely around at the competition, a four armed giant with a long beard and metal armor definitely looked like a serious competitor.

Lastly, there was a lion-faced boy off to the side, away from the other competitors. Raphael guessed he was only about fourteen, by far the youngest competitor here. Despite his young age, he was looking around smugly at the other competitors, the look in his eyes betraying complete and utter confidence. Raphael took immediate dislike in him. He was similar to Usagi and the turtles themselves for he looked like a lion humanoid. Being so young, his mane was not yet completely grown out yet and was short and lightly colored. However, even in his youth he still possessed a considerably muscular physique, as well as massive paws with 3 inch long retractable claws and a bone crushing bite with four inch incisors. His long tail was flicking around lazily. There was a sheathed scythe on his right side, the sheath of the weapon scarred and nicked from repeated use in battle. He didn't wear a shirt, only dark pants, and so several fain scars were visible on his chest. _I hope I get to knock that smirk off his face at some point,_ Raphael thought, irritated at the look in his fierce amber eyes.

"What'cha looking at, Raph?" Mikey whispered. "That lion kid over there. There's something about him I just don't like," Raphael answered. "Yeah, he does look a little scary," Mikey admitted. "No, it's not that it's the way he's looking at everybody, like he's better than us," Raphael said bitterly. "Oh, now that you mention it, I guess you're right. He is looking at us like that. I kind of feel like a piece of meat from the way he's sizing us up," Mikey answered, looking at the lion-faced boy more closely.

Raphael listened carefully as the Daimyo announced the names of the competitors to hear what the lion-faced boy's name was. "…, and lastly, Adehal Induna of dimension Shagen," the Daimyo finished. "Adehal… Induna…," Raphael said thoughtfully to himself, staring at the boy. "Well, actually, I think his name's Induna Adehal because they're listing his last name first," Mikey said smartly. "Whatever. Either way, I don't like the look he's giving us," Raphael said.

"Raphael, Michelangelo, concentrate, the battles are about to begin," Splinter warned. Sure enough, no sooner had he said this, the Daimyo declared, "Let the contest begin!"

Holding up his war staff, a blue light shot out from it down to the arena below, instantly dividing it into 16 sections and placing two competitors in each section in random order.

Raphael was pleased to find that he had gotten none of the four that he had thought would be troublesome or his brothers; although at the same time he was a bit disappointed at not being able to fight Induna. His opponent was a spider-like creature with four spider arms sprouting out of its back and then its face had eight eyes and two big fans framing a mouth. The rest of its body was fairly human like and was wearing a simple animal skin toga. Raphael didn't know if it was male or female, and honestly, he didn't want to find out. The creature did not give him much time to think, for almost immediately it shot out strands of silk from its mouth. Raphael just had time to dodge.

* * *

Elsewhere, Donatello was staring up at a massive creature with four arms, metal armor, and a long, blonde beard. In one had it held a large wooden mallet, one that looked as though it could easily be used to squash him. _Well, here we go,_ Donny thought to himself. _Better not be first turtle out two competitions in a row. _With that, he lunged at his opponent.

* * *

In the next section over, Leo already had to duck and dodge away as a snake-like creature with five heads tried to bite at him from all angles. As much as it made him feel guilty about it, he was seriously starting to consider just chopping its heads off. It wasn't giving him much choice. Catching a fast movement out of the corner of his eye, Leo swung his sword around. His sword caught the creature in the neck, just at the base of the head, but his sword did not penetrate. Instead, the sound of metal on metal echoed around the arena. Then Leo realized why beheading wasn't an option; its scales were made out of steel.

* * *

In another section on the opposite side of the ring, Mikey was sizing up his opponent. "Oh shell," he said softly, looking at the lanky, reptilian beast in front of him, its mouth full of ferocious fangs, spikes down its back, bat-like wings, and piercing red eyes. Looking it over, he noticed it too had three fingers on each hand and two toes on each foot just like him, only its appendages were tipped with long, curving claws. It opened its fang filled mouth wide and let out a shriek, its forked tongue flicking back and forth. _Bad day,_ Mikey thought. _REALLY bad day._

* * *

Three sections over to his left, Splinter was surprised to find a very young, lion-faced boy as his opponent. He didn't even look old enough to be a fully fledged warrior, let alone a competitor in the Battle Nexus Tournament. He was even younger then when his own sons first snuck out and followed him to the tournament.

Despite this, there was something about his eyes that caught his attention. There was fierceness in them, a darkness that shouldn't have been in the eyes of one so young. It pained him a bit to see such a look in a child's eyes, but his thoughts were quickly turned to the matter at hand as Induna arched his spine, stretching a bit, before inhaling deeply and letting out a roar which hurt Splinter's sensitive ears. His teen glinted in the light, and as he dropped to all fours and ran full speed at him, Splinter knew he was going to have to be very careful with this one.

* * *

_Somebody sounds cranky,_ Raphael thought, hearing a long roar. Spider-creep was still spitting out strands of silk at him, and he was forced to dodge. Raphael had been through enough spider webs in the past to know getting entangled in the sticky threads was too risky. Yet, they kept him from being able to get close enough to do any damage. All he was doing was hop-scotching around and it was starting to get on his nerves.

Suddenly, an idea struck him. _Why treat it like a weapon when it's really just a sticky bridge, a bridge between the two of us?_ Stopping he let Spider-creep get him in range and spit. Quickly, he raised one sai to catch the silk on it and rapidly twisted it around his sai several times. Thinking that it had caught him, Spider-creep started pulling him in. Raphael let it for about five feet, just to get close enough, before he dug his heels into the earth and heaved. Spider-creep wasn't as heavy as he appeared and was flung forward to the ground at Raph's feet.

Before it even had time to get up again, Raphael drove his said down towards its head. Just before he hit it, Spider-creep disappeared in a flash of blue light, along with all of its silk. Standing up, Raphael checked his sais just to be sure no more silk was on them before putting them back in his belt.

* * *

Donny was having a much harder time, having to dodge not only his opponent's mallet but also all three fists that weren't occupied with a weapon. It was hard to get close to him without getting hit. Dodging around a few more times, Donny made an error in his distance from his opponent and got hit hard in the gut. He was flung up against the wall with considerable force and the air was knocked right out of his lungs.

While he recovered, the giant walked up and raised his mallet. Donny had just looked up as he started to bring the weapon down. One last idea formed in his head and he just barely managed to leap to the side before the weapon came down where he had been sitting not half a second earlier. Before the giant could raise his weapon again, Donny jumped up onto his arm and swung his bo staff, hitting him in the head before flipping over him and landing neatly behind him. Turning, he moved to the left just as the giant fell, out cold. Disappearing in a blue light, the giant was gone and Donny let out a sigh of relief.

* * *

Elsewhere, Leo was not having much luck. The snake-creature had steel scales all over its body. He'd tried slicing several different areas on its body now, and all he had gotten was the sound of metal on metal. Not to mention the thrashing of its tail and the swiping of its front and only arms, each finger tipped with a long, sharp claw, were coming dangerously close to his own flesh. He was getting tossed around so much he doubted he'd be able to keep it up much longer.

Leaping away from the creature, Leo took a moment to catch his breath and try to find a weak point. He was getting ready to give up when something caught his attention. Just at the base of its neck, between the first neck plates and the chest plates, was a small spot that didn't seem to have any protection. Looking more carefully, he realized that this was perhaps its only weak spot, or at least the only one he could find. There were just two problems; one, he'd have to get past all five snapping mouths and clawed paws and two, it was such a small target that even if he did get past the defenses if he missed he'd definitely loose. But if he didn't at least try, there was no way he was going to win anyway. Either way, if he failed he would still loose. Best to give it a shot.

Finished planning, Leo ran at 'Snakehead'. Just like he expected, all his heads immediately blocked his path to the weak spot, so he jumped over him. One of the heads tried to snap at him but missed. Quickly turning around, he jumped onto one of the necks, just at the base of the skull. Immediately it began thrashing about, trying to throw him off. Two of the other heads tried to bite him, but he dropped down to the ground and the two heads ended up biting into the neck of the one he had been on. This created immediate chaos among the heads, and the three of them were immediately emitting angry growls, especially the one that had been bitten twice.

This confusion distracted the other two heads and Leo leaped up with his katana, aiming for the blind spot. His katana had just touched its skin when it disappeared in a flash and Leo's attack continued down to the ground, hitting nothing but air. Seeing his opponent was gone, Leo rose and put his katanas away.

* * *

"Do you think we can just talk this out?" Mikey suggested, looking at the ferocious beast in front of him. In response, it let out a shriek and lunged at him. "I guess not!" he said shrilly, dodging to the side. The creature didn't seem fazed by it and simply used his wings to redirect his attack, slashing at Mikey. He let out a shrill cry and ducked, and the creature passed over his head. The creature flipped around in mid-air, his speed making him skid back a few feet despite the massive, hooked claws on all of his... paws.

"Dude, are you like, part vampire bat or something?" Mikey goggled at him. With lightning speed the creature leaped at him again. Michelangelo barely had any time to dodge to one side. "Whoa... you know, for being so ugly, you really don't seem that tough," Mikey taunted.

Whether or not the creature understood him, it bounded towards him before slashing at him with his claws. "Oops, too slow," Mikey said, dodging to the left. It slashed at him again. "Too slow again." Another slash. "Just a tad bit too slow," Mikey said, miming a tiny amount with his fingers. The creature lunged at him with his mouth open wide. "Whoa!" Mikey ducked quickly to avoid the jaws that snapped shut loudly right above his head before flipping back several feet.

"Is that all you got? I've seen sewer rats with more fight than you, and I don't mean just my sensei," Mikey said with a mocking, sing song voice. Mikey looked into the creature's fierce red eyes and something weird happened. It felt like he was getting pulled into them and he started to get a funny feeling bubble up in his stomach; fear. He tried to move his limbs, but his body wouldn't move. _What the shell's going on?_ Mikey thought desperately, trying to make his body respond while fighting down his rising panic.

Then the creature took a step. This was what brought it home and his fear was tripled. Unable to contain it any more, he screamed. This seemed to set the beast off and it leaped at him. Seeing the beast leap at him snapped him out of whatever trance he had been in and he leaped away, obtaining only a nick on his arm. "Ehh," Mikey grunted out of pain, grabbing his arm.

The creature growled at him fiercely in frustration for escaping and then leaped at him again. Just as the creature was about to run smack into him, he jumped up and then brought his nunchaku strait down on the creature's head. There was a blue flash and the beast vanished. "Well, glad that's over," Mikey muttered shakily before putting his nunchaku away. _I think I'll be more careful about making eye-contact with unknown species from now on. Some of them got some pretty scary abilities. _

* * *

When the lion-faced boy who he knew to be Induna leaped at him, Splinter quickly dodged to the side. Induna quickly turned, using his tail for balance, and slashed out at him with his paw, his claws fully extended. Splinter once again managed to dodge. However, Induna didn't seem fazed and kept slashing at him before twisting around and kicking him in the chest. Splinter recovered in mid-air and landed on his feet. Looking back up, he saw Induna jumping down on him from above and he leaped out of the way.

"Old rat, you're playing a game with the wrong predator," Induna growled, baring his teeth. "Perhaps so, though I am not willing to give in to the younger generation quite yet," Splinter replied with a smile.

The cat-faced boy snorted before lunged at him with a roar. Splinter quickly dodged to the side before lashing out with his stick. Induna grabbed it in between his teeth and, crunching down, snapped it into pieces.

Quickly letting go of the now splintered wood, Splinter kicked him and managed to knock him off balance before he leaped and kicked him to the ground. Then Splinter leaped into the air and went to punch Induna, who's fierce, amber eyes snapped open and then narrowed in anger.

Just before Splinter's fist met his face, Induna put his right arm out in front of him. Induna's arms were long, and his massive paw slammed into his shoulder and chest. The wind was knocked out of Splinter's lungs and he was stunned for a second. Then with a small grin, Induna took his other paw and raked his claws down Splinter's arm while Splinter cried out in pain before grabbing his wrist and then flipping him.

Splinter disappeared in a flash of blue light and Induna leaped up to his feet. Splinter reappeared next to the Daimyo as he had in the previous tournament. "Ah, it seems old age is finally taking its toll on you, old friend," the Daimyo said with a chuckle. "Yes, and the younger generation has become quite aggressive," Splinter said with a wince as he brought his right arm around with his left arm- for he couldn't seem to move his right- for scrutiny, showing the long slashes that Induna had left behind with his claws, the fabric of his robe's sleeve in tatters.

"You seem to be in need of medical aid. Getsu, escort Splinter to the infirmary," Daimyo said to the servant standing behind him, who responded with a nod. With a nod and a "Thank you, Lord Daimyo," Splinter allowed the servant to escort down to the infirmary.


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm going to be going by rounds in the tournament, just so you know. Also, I'm doing my best on the paragraphs but if I mess up on any of them don't hesitate to let me know. :) Enjoy.**

When the last round was completed he immediately proceeded to the next stage of the tournament, dividing the arena up into larger sections.

When Raphael came out of a flash of blue light he looked across the arena section at his opponent, who looked like a mutant lizard with many spikes and two horns curved backwards. "This is going to be fun," Raphael said to himself with bitter sarcasm.

* * *

Donatello saw his opponent and bit his lip in nervousness. He was face to face with Induna.

* * *

Leonardo came out of the blue light and squinting, he was surprised to see one of the creatures he least expected to see. "It is an honor to be able to fight you, Leonard-san," Usagi said with a bow. "Same here," Leo said, returning the bow.

* * *

Seeing his opponent, Michelangelo gave a sigh of relief. His opponent was tiny, only about half his size and although he had a big mouth filled needle-like teeth, he didn't look too dangerous at all. "You know, you almost look cute," Mikey said with a chuckle as he looked at his big blue eyes. The creature gave a screech and Mikey leaped backwards with a sharp, "Eek!"

* * *

"Well come on, you big lizard, what are you waiting for?" Raph said, taking out his sais and flipping them several times before getting into a fighting stance. The lizard-like creature gave a roar before charging at him. Rolling to one side, Raphael avoided the reckless charge.

"You know, you kind'a remember of me," Raphael said with a smirk. The lizard creature gave a snort and then turned back at him with a slash of his long, sharp claws. Raph ducked before slashing out with his sais at him and slashing his side. The lizard creature gave an angry grunt before lunging at him and snapping out with his teeth. Jumping back, Raphael threw one of his sais at the lizard creature's right eye. It disappeared in a flash of blue light. "That was almost too easy," Raphael muttered as he walked over and picked up his sai.

* * *

"My brothers think you look dangerous. I guess I'll get to test that theory first hand," Donatello said, looking at Induna and twirling his bow staff. Induna smirked at him, his teeth glinting in the light.

"You should be more worried. Especially after I defeated your sensei so easily," Induna said.

Donny's heart skipped a beat. "You mean… you fought him?" he asked hoarsely. "Not just fought him. Defeated him. Your old rat should retire from the warrior's path, you know. He'll have scars to remember me by too," the lion-faced boy said, his eyes gleaming.

Donatello's knuckles were almost white from gripping his staff so hard. "What do you mean?" he asked. "I sliced his arm open," Induna answered casually. "You what?!" Donny said angrily. "Like I just said; I sliced his arm open. You should have heard the sound he made-" Induna never finished for Donny leaped at him angrily, bo staff raised.

With a nimble footing, Induna leaped out of the way easily. Donatello was too angry to care and lashed out at him several more times. His attacks were reckless and not very well thought out, however, and Induna easily dodged all of them.

"You seem even weaker than your sensei," Induna commented, egging him on. "Don't you say anything bad about my sensei," Donny snarled. "He's stronger than anyone I know." "Oh really? Then how come I defeated him?" Induna challenged. "Just… shut up!" Donatello said, his thoughts getting too jumbled up from the anger that was clouding his judgment.

With a wide sweep of his bo, Donny attempted to knock Induna off his feet. However, Induna dropped down onto all fours, avoiding the hit before jumping up and taking advantage of Donatello's weak defense. He leaped on him and bit into his shoulder. Donny screamed in pain. Pulling his head back, Induna then went for his throat, but before he could finish the job Donatello disappeared in the blue light; he had lost.

Standing up, Induna chuckled. "So long, turtle," Induna said with a smirk.

Donny reappeared in the infirmary, with the other competitors that had already dropped out of the competition. "Owww," he moaned, gripping his shoulder which was streaming with blood from the tooth marks that Induna had left behind. Two of the medics rushed over and took him to the infirmary. He didn't resist.

* * *

After they had both bowed, Leonardo and Usagi both took out their weapons. Neither moved for several moments. Usagi inched forward a few times, still waiting for Leonardo to make his move. Leonardo obliged to his invitation and ran at him.

Usagi broke into a run as well before they both leaped into the air, blocking each other's attack, before doing a flip and rolling onto the ground. Turning around with lightning speed they clashed their swords together for a split second before Leonardo attempted a kick at Usagi's stomach, which Usagi dodged.

Counterattacking, Usagi leaped into the air and kicked at Leo with his legs, first one then the other. Leonardo leaned back while moving backwards to avoid being hit. Once Usagi was on solid ground once more, Leonardo sprang forward slashed out with his right sword, which Usagi had to use to use both swords to block. Taking advantage of his momentary weakness, Leonardo brought his left sword around and attempted a blow at Usagi's right side. Quickly seeing his error, Usagi leaped back. Just in the nick of time as well, for Leonardo's sword ripped open the fabric of his shirt. Any closer and it would have been an injury.

"I've forgotten how fast you are, Leonardo-san," Usagi said with a grin. "Glad I could remind you," Leo answered cockily. "I wouldn't be too over confident yet. Our last match was interrupted, but the same will not be so here," Usagi said as he leaped at Leonardo with both swords raised. Quickly changing the angle of his swords and moving his body off to the left, Leonardo turned Usagi's forward going momentum to his advantage. Usagi had only just realized his error when Leonardo who was now off to his right took his left katana slashed at Usagi's back. In a flash, Usagi was gone.

"It may have been a fair fight, friend, but I still came out the better this time," Leonardo said, sheathing his katanas.

* * *

After a flash of bright light and a sensation of a lurching stomach, Usagi found himself up above the arena with the other competitors who had lost. "Well, done, friend," Usagi said, looking down at Leonardo who was standing in the below arena.

"Fancy seeing you here." Usagi- startled- turned to the sound of the voice to find Donatello standing behind him. "Donatello-san," Usagi started, before he caught sight of his right arm. "Donatello, what happened?" Usagi inquired, for Donny's right arm was covered in bandages and in a sling. "Induna Adehal is what happened," Donny responded, before sitting down on a nearby bench, gesturing with his left arm for Usagi to join him.

"He might not look that old, but he's got more skill than Splinter- who he beat in the last round by the way," Donny said. "So what is the damage?" Usagi asked with concern. "Nothing too serious. His teeth bit pretty deep, enough to do some deep muscle damage but nothing permanent. I keep on getting muscle twitches and I have numb feeling in my arm but the Daimyo's medical team says that's normal. I won't be able to use it for at least a few weeks, but after that I'll be fine," Donny answered.

"He used his… teeth?" Usagi said with a bit of surprise. "Yeah. Huge ones at that. That guy's more aggressive than even Raph," Donny said.

Usagi noticed that he wasn't telling as much as he could. "What else happened?" Usagi prodded. Donatello sighed before looking up at the wall across from him, not really focusing on anything. "He used Splinter against me. He told me about how he beat him and how he injured in and used my own angry response to defeat me. I shouldn't have let him get to me like that," Donny said angrily.

"He injured Splinter as well?" Usagi said in surprise, as well as rising anger. "Yeah, a bit more serious than me. That Induna kid slashed his arm open from his shoulder all the way down to his elbow. It did nerve damage, muscle damage, and tendon damage. The healers say Splinter's not going to be able to use that arm for months," Donny said miserably.

"The injuries that the two of you received should not have happened at all. The Gyoji should have pulled you out before the injuries were inflicted," an angry Usagi said with a shake of his head. "He couldn't have, Usagi. The rules state that the tournament is non-lethal, yes, but unless the competitor is about to be fatally wounded or is unable to participate due to extensive injury, he's not allowed to pull them out.

That's why Splinter wasn't pulled out even when he broke his leg fighting Draco. The injury was bad, but it still was possible for him to fight even with it. And he did fight with it, and won. That's why he became the champion that year. We could have still fought with our injuries for they were easily less debilitating than a broken leg, but Induna immediately finished with a kill blow on both of us so the Gyoji had to pull us out," Donny explained.

Usagi considered this information before grumbling, " I suppose you are right, though I am still not happy that it happened." "Me neither," Donny agreed. "One thing I am sure of though," Usagi continued. "What's that?" Donny asked. "Although I do not often draw conclusions about people without getting to know them first, I definitely am not appreciating this Induna character," Usagi answered. "Yeah, me neither," Donny said with a nod.

* * *

"Well come little guy. Let's see what you can do," Mikey said looking down at the blue-eyed creature with needle sharp teeth. Its tiny little paws were tipped with small claws and it had stubby legs that looked like some kind of dinosaurs. Its tail was tipped like a fork, or a demon's staff.

'Knee-high'- for that was about how tall he was and Mikey could think of no better name- gladly obliged to his invitation and ran at him with speed that defied his small stature. Mikey- feeling guilty about attacking Knee-high with nunchakus when Knee-high himself had no weapons- got into a fighting stance, ready for hand to paw combat. However, with unbelievable accuracy, Knee-high leaped onto his face. Mikey started screaming at trying to pry the little demon off his face while Knee-high continued to scratch at his head.

Abandoning his guilt, Mikey took out a nunchaku and tried to hit him with it. Seeing the blow, Knee-high flipped around onto Mikey's shell and Mikey ended up hitting himself in the face with his own nunchaku. "Ow!" Mikey said, rubbing his nose.

Making a gurgling-chuckling noise in his ear- which totally freaked Mikey out- Knee-high covered Mikey's eyes with his little paws and bit at his head. "Ow! Ow! OW! Knock it off!" Mikey cried out as he blindly tried to hit the little thing. However, Knee-high just seem to find it fun dodging Mikey's wild punches. "Okay, that's IT!" Mikey said angrily as Knee-high bit him hard.

Reaching behind his back, Mikey found Knee-high's tail pulled it. Knee-high let out a shriek, which told Mikey that he had indeed found the tail end of the little monster. Giving it a tug, Mikey pulled Knee-high off his back and to the ground.

Then, before the little devil could get over his stunned state, Mikey brought his nunchaku down on his head, making Knee-high vanish.

"Thank God that's over," Mikey muttered in relief as he put his nunchakus away before rubbing the back of his head, wincing before drawing his hand back to reveal that the back of his head was indeed bleeding.

"I hope their medical staff can treat head injuries," Mikey joked weakly to himself. _Man that was bad._


	3. Chapter 3

**Whew, finally got this done :). I actually wrote on the bus this morning by the light of my Zune because it was so dark out and then skipped lunch to go write in the library and then spent about two hours at my grandma's house/at home writing to finish it but, hey, I did it :D. Now it starts getting intense. **

When the last competitor had finished their fight, the Daimyo used his war staff to un-divide the arena and bring the remaining contestants into the center in a line, facing him. Then he stood up to make his announcement. "We will now take a short intermission before the tournament continues. Those of you, who will be continuing onward to the following rounds, use this time to rest up. You will be summoned when the tournament is about to move on to the third round," the Daimyo finished.

As soon as the Daimyo finished, Raphael found Mikey and Leo and the three of them exited.

"Looks like Don was the first one out again," Mikey smirked. "I wonder who Splinter fought. I haven't seen him," Leo said worriedly. "Relax Leo, he's probably just fine," Raphael said. "Wanna go find them and rub it in their faces?" Mikey suggested. "You know it!" Raph said eagerly. "I guess I'm in too," Leo said with a sigh and a shake of his head, although he too was really looking forward to it.

* * *

Induna watched the three turtles laughing and joking and a feeling like jealousy settled into his stomach. He shook his head. _Why would I be jealous of those stinky reptiles?_ He thought to himself. _Because they have what you want the most. They have each other to relate to and a father. You don't have anyone,_ his conscious told him, making him frown.

He was about to continue arguing in his head even more when the breeze shifted and he caught a scent. His eyes widened in remembrance and flashes of fear, anger, and hatred spiked through him simultaneously. _No… it can't be Him…_ Twitching his ears and sniffing, he tried to locate Him. Beyond the noise of the fellow competitors exiting the arena, through the hall of champions, Induna could detect a slight swishing noise that hadn't been there the first time he had entered the arena. Yes, He was definitely here and He was following Induna.

Ever so slightly, he picked up his pace, determined to get into the crowds and disappear, or to make it impossible for Him to hit him with whatever weapon He had planned for him.

* * *

Raph, Leo, and Mikey had just walked outside the arena grounds when they stopped to get their bearings on the crowded streets. "Um so where do you think they might be?" Mikey asked. "I don't know. I didn't see them. Do you want to check the infirmary?" Leo suggested. "Sure," Raph and Mikey responded.

Have to start somewhere, right? So the trio set off for the infirmary. Arriving a few minutes later, they entered and were surprised to find Donny, Splinter, and Usagi. "Hey guys. What's… up?" Mikey's smile and words both faded away as he saw they had injuries. "Whoa, what happened to you guys?" he asked.

Donny glanced at Splinter who nodded. "Our opponent was Induna," Donny said. "What?!" Raphael said angrily. "That Induna kid did this to you?!" "Yes," Donny answered.

"What are your injuries?" Leo asked with concern. "My arm's just got some deep muscle damage and Splinter has muscle, nerve, and tendon damage. And don't worry, Usagi's not hurt," Donny answered.

Raphael's fists shook with rage. "That's it, I'm gonna go find this guy," Raphael said angrily, turning to leave the room. "Raph, don't move, Leo said firmly. "Don't worry, Fearless Leader. I'm just going to talk to the guy," Raphael said, although not very convincingly.

"Raphael, listen to your brother," Splinter said. "Don't get so worried, I'm not going to kill him or anything," Raph said as he walked out the doorway. Splinter sighed and put a hand to his face. Looking up, his eyes met Leo's. "Don't worry, Master Splinter, I'll get him," Leo said. "I sincerely hope that you do. Especially before he does anything drastic," Splinter said as Leo turned and followed Raph out.

Once he was outside, Leo looked round and tried to locate his brother. He just caught sight of Raph's headband as he turned a corner. Leo quickly followed his brother. Raphael seemed to know that he was being followed, for he broke into a run and it was all Leo could do to follow him out of the Daimyo's infirmary and into the streets outside where beings of all different kinds and shapes sold and bought or simply milled about, waiting for the tournament to continue.

Catching sight of his brother, Leo took off after him. Seeing Leo in a nearby vender's mirror, Raphael didn't dare stop. His eyes darted around, looking for any sign of Induna as he ran through the streets, anger fueling the blood in his veins. Ducking behind a large two armed giant who was looking at skins, Raphael turned into an ally. Lying flat against the wall, Raphael hoped Leo wouldn't notice him.

Luck was on his side and Leo ran past. Waiting a few seconds before peaking around the corner, Raph took off in the opposite direction. He rounded several turns ducking and turning to avoid running into other people. By now Leo had realized that Raph had tricked him and had turned back around to search for his hot-headed and cunning brother. Raphael had just about given up his search when he saw him.

* * *

Induna was standing next to a crowded meat stand, alert and edgy. He could still feel His presence, could still hear and smell Him. He paid no notice what so ever to his surroundings, only Him. Induna tensed as he heard Him slide some kind of weapon out, the slight sound of steel on leather making the adrenaline rush through his veins and his heart pound as he readied himself to dodge.

Just before He attacked, Induna was distracted by- "Hey you! Induna!"

Startled, Induna jerked around at the sound of the voice, and found a very angry and panting Raphael. He also noticed that He had stopped His assault. Deciding to risk letting his guard down for a moment, Induna turned his back to Him and faced Raphael, a smirk on his face and confidence flickering in his eyes.

"What is it, reptile?" Induna called out to Raph. Raphael stalked closer to him; Induna held his ground. "You put my brother and my sensei in the infirmary, vermin," Raphael said angrily. "Vermin, huh? Well then you must be referring to your sensei because that is technically what he is," Induna retorted smartly. "You know exactly what I mean. Now I want to know why. Now tell me before I have to beat it out of you!" Raphael said loudly with anger, earning himself several nervous looks from on-lookers.

"I don't know why I did it; I just did. It's how I work. Does that bother you?" Induna answered with a smile. 'Yeah, it does when you hurt my family," Raph said. Induna was about to reply when- "Raph!" Both of them looked and saw Leo running towards them. "Shit," Raph muttered. "Raph, what are you doing? Let's go," Leo said.

"Back out of this Leo," Raphael said. "No Raph. I'm not going to let you start a fight, especially like this," Leo answered, grabbing his shoulder. "Let go of me Leo," Raph said through gritted teeth. "Yes, let go of him," Induna mimicked. "Let him have a go, why not? What's the worst he could do, aside from loose like the other two did?"

Raphael growled as he tried to make a move towards Induna, but Leo grabbed his shoulders and held him back. "Let's go Raph. You don't have to sink to his level," Leo said quietly. Raph considered it for a moment and bitterly stood down and started to turn to walk away with Leo.

"Aw, what's the matter? Too afraid to fight the big, bad, pussy cat?" Induna mocked. Raphael didn't respond. "Or… are you just too weak to avenge your brother and father?" His hands clenched into fists and his teeth grinded together as he continued walking. "Steady Raph," Leo cautioned. "You know you should have heard the sounds they made. The last time I heard anyone scream like that was-" "Grrrrrr, that's it!" Raph turned on his heal and took out his sais and ran at Induna before Leo could stop him.

Induna ducked to the left at the last minute and Raph's sais dug into the wood in the meat stand, making the tender shriek with fright. Pulling them out, Raph took another go at Induna, slashing at him with both sais. Induna ducked and dodged and danced away, always a second ahead of him.

"What's the matter? Can't hit a moving target?" he taunted. In response Raphael increased the speed of his attacks. "Too slow- gah!" Induna was kicked backwards by Raph with an unpredicted round house kick.

Induna growled and got back up, the comical light gone from his eyes as he looked at Raphael who was looking back at him in triumph. "We'll see how long you laugh," he muttered darkly under his breath before running at Raphael.

"Raph, look out!" Leo called out in warning to his brother, but he was too late and watched in horror as Induna dug his teeth deeply into Raph's right leg. Raphael screamed as he went down with Induna on top of him.

After crunching down hard, Induna let go of his leg and got back up, brushing his pants off. "This time I went easy on you. Next time, I aim to kill," Induna warned. Leo rushed over to his brother whose breaths were coming in quick gasps from the pain. Raphael- in pain though he was- continued to glare up at Induna with defiance. Seeing the abundance of shed blood and the wound, Leonardo too turned his steely gaze to Induna.

He was about to say something when the Gyoji appeared in a characteristic blue flash of light. "The next round of the tournament is about to begin. I have to come to-" the Gyoji stopped short when he saw Raphael lying and bleeding on the ground.

"Oh dear, this simply won't do," he said as he floated down to take a closer look at Raph's injuries. "I am afraid to say this, but you must seek medical aid immediately," the Gyoji said to Raph. "What about the tournament?" he asked. The Gyoji shook his head. "I cannot postpone the tournament if you go to the infirmary. I will have to disqualify you." "What?!" Raph said with disbelief.

"Go ahead, go to the infirmary. You don't want it to get infected. You know how easily cat bites can spread infection," Induna said nastily. Raphael glared at him with extreme spite.

"No," he said. "No?" Leo questioned. "No, I'm not going to the infirmary. I'm going to continue in the tournament," Raphael said. "But your wounds-" the Gyoji started- "Are not too serious," Raphael interrupted.

"Raph, you can't be serious," Leo said seriously. "If Master Splinter can fight with a broken leg and still win the tournament, than I can fight with a little cat bite," Raphael said. Then, he slowly got up on his own, wincing a bit as he put weight on his injured calf. "See," Raph said to make his point, even though blood still dripped down from his leg freely.

The Gyoji considered him for a moment. "Very well then. To the tournament," he said, waving his paddle, gathering up Leonardo, Raphael and Induna.

All the while, He had been observing from the shadows. _Very interesting,_ He thought._ Very interesting indeed. Perhaps I could use the turtle Raphael to meet my desires…_ With a brief chuckle and a new plan forming in his mind, He faded away to continue watching the games, very interested to see how things would turn out. One thing he was certain of, when this was all over, Induna Adehal would be dead…

Reappearing in the arena, Raphael shifted his weight to his good leg, grimacing at the feel of fresh blood trickling down from his wound. "Are you sure you're going to be okay?" Leo asked with concern. "Yeah, I'll make it," Raph answered rather weakly. "Oh my God, Raph, what happened?" Mikey said with shock as he walked over to him. "I had a little 'friendly' confrontation with Induna," Raphael said.

Mikey looked over at the fierce, lion warrior. "You mean he bit you?" "Yeah." "And you're still going to compete?" Mikey asked in surprise. "Yes," Raphael answered. "No offense bro, but I really don't think you should do this. And I'm not just saying that because I don't to fight you- which I don't- it's just that wound looks really bad. And look, you're bleeding all over the floor!" Mikey pointed to the puddle of blood that was forming around Raphael's foot.

"Don't worry about me, Mike. I'll make it," Raphael said reassuringly. "Okay," Mikey said, although he didn't sound too sure.

Leo was about to say something, but they had been so busy talking that they hadn't realized that the Daimyo had already moved on into the next round of the competition.

Temporarily blinded by the flash, it took Raphael a moment to figure out what had happened, and when he did he turned to his opponent. To his surprise, glee, and a bit of horror, he was now face to face with Induna. And this time, there would be no interruptions…

**Dun, dun, dun, duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun :D Cliff hanger!!! Yay, you guys have to wait now :D Don't worry, I'll try to write as much as I can :). Oh and don't even bother asking who "He" is because I'm not telling :P All I'm saying is he's a bad guy (go figure). ^.^**


	4. Chapter 4

**Upon the suggestion of one of my viewers, I seperated the spoken text from other spoken text. :) Big thanks Raphfreak :). Well okay, I hope you all enjoy. Oh and please, can somebody other than Raphfreak review my story? I'm feeling kind of lonely out here :/**

Raphael looked across the arena at Induna, and Induna looked right back. His leg was still throbbing painfully and bleeding profusely, and Raph gritted his teeth from the pain. Induna saw this and smiled nastily at him.

"It seems fate would have it that we meet again," Induna spoke.

"Yes, only this time I'm going to kick your furry ass," Raphael growled.

"Aw, still have hard feelings, huh?" Induna said with a mockingly hurt look. Raphael drew his sais and spun them around three times before taking an edgy fighting stance, keeping most of his weight off his injured foot.

For the first time that competition, Induna took his scythe out, unhooking the scabbard from his belt and drawing the cruel weapon. Although it was not in Raphael's nature to wait for a fight to come to him, he didn't move forward. He knew he was badly injured and he didn't want to injure his leg further in a reckless charge.

Induna waited a moment, and then rushed forward to the still stationary Raph. Raphael waited until Induna closed the gap before he risked his injury and moved two steps before clashing his sais against Induna's scythe. The two of them struggled a moment before Raphael pulled one of his sais out from the lock that he had Induna's weapon in and tried to stab at him. Induna saw it and deflected the advance with his scabbard, which became decorated with a new nick.

Trying again to strike him, Raphael's attack was once again blocked. Clenching his teeth from pain and excursion, Raphael pushed forward with all of his strength and set Induna off balance. Then, leaping forward, Raphael knocked the scythe out of Induna's hand, slashing his arm in the process. Induna gave an angry growl before bringing up the scabbard to block the blow that Raphael had been aiming directly for his face.

What Induna didn't see however was that Raphael had only attacked him with one sai. He only realized it when Raphael's sai pricked his chest, making him promptly leap back. Using this minor distraction to his advantage, Raphael knocked the scabbard out of his hands.

Induna's growl intensified in volume and he bare his fangs at Raph.

"What's with the look?" Raphael asked innocently.

In response, Induna jumped at him with a roar. Raphael quickly tried to step back out of the way, but he slipped and fell in something slippery and hot. Induna went flying over his head. It confused him at first but when he looked down and saw that he was laying in something red and wet his breath caught in his throat. _Is this… MY blood…?_

He didn't have long to think about it, because the momentarily confused Induna was now turning back around and he quickly stood back up, blood smeared on different places on his body, making him feel sick to his stomach.

Induna sniffed the air and smelled Raphael's blood on the air. He gave a smirk.

"I always love the smell of blood before the final blow. It makes me feel so… invigorated," Induna said with a widening grin, his fangs gleaming, dangerous and sharp.

Then Induna bounded towards him. Raphael thought desperately as he watched the lion-faced boy bound towards him. He couldn't go anywhere. His wound was too debilitating. He wasn't fast enough to dodge. So, just as Induna leaped into the air to pounce on him and end the fight, Raphael did what came most natural to him; he lifted his sais.

If the tournament had been lethal, Induna would have been skewered. Fortunately for him, it was not. Induna disappeared in a flash of blue light just before he touched Raphael.

Raphael breathed a sigh of relief as he slowly relaxed before putting his sais away. He had just looked up at the crowd when the world started spinning. Raphael shook his head, trying to get everything back into focus. It didn't help and he staggered a bit before he forced himself to fight down the panic rising in his chest and focus his eyes. The spinning stopped but his eyes were still seeing double.

He didn't have much time to do anything else, because before he knew it he was moving on into the next round…

When Induna found himself in the infirmary, he had to try and figure out what happened. Fury was rising in his chest. How could he have lost? Induna slammed his fist into a wall, making a few other defeated competitors look at him nervously.

"You know you could always come back in three years."

Induna turned and found Leonardo standing beside him, arms crossed and a less than friendly look on his face.

"Funny, I though you would go farther," Induna said.

"Are you really that ignorant?" Leo asked bluntly.

"Enlighten me," Induna said with a glare.

"I lost on purpose to give Raphael a chance to win," Leonardo said coldly.

"Why would you lose for him? I can't see anything good about him," Induna said.

"Maybe that's because you see yourself in him. You're not exactly the friendliest person either," Leonardo said.

Induna just glared at him. "You still haven't answered my question."

"I lost for him because he's my brother, and I'll do anything in my power to keep him safe and let him win, especially after what you just did to him," Leo said.

Induna looked at him. "I don't understand you," he said finally.

"Then don't bother trying," Leo said as he pushed by him.

Induna watched him as he walked away before turning and looking at the ground, thinking hard. It was so confusing to him. Why would someone do that? Thinking about it confused him, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't forget about it.

He walked out of the room, going to go think…

It took Raphael a moment to see strait when he first came out of the flash, having to refocus his eyes just to see his opponent. Surprisingly, his opponent didn't seem to intimidating. It was a weasel like creature with two tails, a notch taken out of one of its ears, a ring in the other and black fur.

He had sandals on, as well as brown baggy pants and a sword strapped to his back. He had an eye patch over one socket and his other eye was black. He had short, sharp claws on all of his toes and fingers.

Taking his sword out, the weasel got into a fighting stance. Raphael once again took a stationary fighting stance- although in his condition he could hardly see strait let alone run strait.

Just like Induna had, the weasel paused a moment to see if he would move before he ran at Raph, sword raised and ready to strike. Raphael focused his eyes on the weapon, not daring to take them off.

He raised his sais and blocked the weasel's attack and stepped off to the side before elbowing the weasel in the chest. The weasel stumbled backwards a few feet before recovering and coming at him again.

Raphael dodged to the side before lashing out with his own sais. He stabbed the weasel in the shoulder and the weasel yelped in pain as he leaped back. Leaping forward, Raphael finished him off.

Standing up, Raphael was panting heavily. He couldn't focus his eyes anymore and the dizziness was overtaking him. He had to force himself to stay conscious.

It was then that he was moved onto the final round…

Mikey looked up confidently at the crowd, soaking up the attention. _I have to keep the crowd happy. I am the champion after all. Two time champ after this next round._

He had been waiting for about a minute for the next competitor to appear. _Must be some fight,_ Mikey thought, scratching his head. It m_ust be Leo. This will be fun._

He had just begun to wonder if anyone would show up when his opponent finally appeared. Mikey's face paled. He had been right about one thing; it was one of his brothers, but it wasn't Leo. It was Raph.

Mikey couldn't believe how bad he looked. His brother was pale, the normally deep green color gone from his face. Raphael was in obvious pain, his breaths coming in quick, shallow breaths. The deep bite in his right leg was bleeding heavily, a steadily growing puddle of blood already surrounding his foot. It also looked like his brother was on the verge of passing out from the way he kept blinking his eyes, trying to focus them.

"Raph… are you… okay?" Mikey asked softly, not a laugh in him for once.

"Yeah, just a bad nick from Induna, like I told you before," Raphael panted out.

Mikey's eyes widened. "You mean you've gone these past two rounds like that?"

"Yeah," Raphael answered weakly.

Michelangelo didn't move and didn't say anything, just stared at his brother with disbelief, awe, and perhaps for one of the few times, respect.

Raphael saw he wasn't moving and glared at his younger brother. "So what are you waiting for? Let's do this!" he said.

"Raph I… I don't want to do this to you," Mikey said honestly.

"Mikey, it's a competition. You're SUPPOSED to fight," Raphael said forcefully. "Now come on, let's fight!"

Michelangelo didn't move.

"Fine, if you won't make the first move, I will!" Raphael ran at his brother.

Instinctively, Mikey ducked, dodging away from his sais, but he still didn't fight back.

"Come on, Mikey, fight back!" Raphael shouted at his brother.

"No Raph, I won't do it," Mikey whispered.

Raphael looked at him for a moment. "Fine, then I'll do the fighting," Raphael said. He lashed out at Mikey. Mikey didn't move. Just before Raphael's sai connected with his chest, Mikey disappeared and Raphael was the only one left standing in the arena.

Reappearing in the defeated ward, Mikey looked down into the arena and sighed. _You deserved that Raph. I never could have down what you did. You're the stronger of the two of us. You deserve to be the champion,_ Mikey thought, looking down at his brother proud fully...

Finding himself the last one in the arena, Raphael stood up strait. The Gyoji floated down in front of him.

"Congratulations, you are the new Battle Nexus Champion," Gyoji said, personally impressed that he had endured the past three rounds.

"Thanks I… I…," suddenly Raphael's vision started spinning again, little black spots dancing across his eyes. "Are you alright?" the Gyoji asked in concern.

"I can't…," Raphael didn't have a chance to finish his sentence for the black spots clouded his vision and he dropped his sais and dropped to his knees before falling onto the ground and finally being overcome with darkness…

**Sorry that it's so short. Don't worry, I'll make up for it in the next couple of chapters :).**


	5. Chapter 5

**Whew, I finally got this done :D. Enjoy :)**

When Raphael woke up, it felt like he was slowly climbing up out of a deep, dark well into a bright, summer day. He blinked several times, his eyes squinted shut from the bright lights that surrounded him.

Finally coming to, Raphael opened his eyes completely and found himself in the infirmary. His head was propped up comfortably on a pillow and he could see down to his toes. Looking down his leg, he could see that his right calf had been heavily bandaged and the pain that he had felt before was now gone.

Looking around the room, he saw Leo, Donny, Mikey, Splinter, Usagi, the Master Healer, and a bit to his surprise, the Lord Daimyo himself. None of them seemed to be aware that he was awake yet. He announced his consciousness with a cough.

Immediately all of them looked at him with a mixture of alarm and relief. "Raph, are you feeling okay?" Donny asked immediately.

"Um… I'm feeling kind of foggy," he mumbled.

"I administered a painkiller. That should wear off completely in a matter of a few hours," the Master Healer explained.

"Well, my leg's feeling a lot better," Raphael mumbled again, his words slurred and his mind slow from the painkillers.

"Yes, you gave us quite a fright when you fainted in the arena like that," the Daimyo said. "Quite frankly, I was frightened for your life."

"Thanks… I guess," Raphael said meekly.

"You should be very thankful that he got you to the infirmary so quickly. For a minute or two we actually thought you were a goner," Donny said.

"Yeah, uh, thank you, Lord Daimyo," Raphael slurred slightly, the painkillers making his vision go fuzzy for a second.

"It was my pleasure to transport the newest Battle Nexus Champion to the Master Healer," the Daimyo said with a fatherly grin.

"Right, yeah… wait, new champion?" Raphael's eyelids shot up. "I'm the new champion?"

"Yeah dude, I gave up my title for you," Mikey chirped.

"And you said I wouldn't beat you," Raphael said with a smirk.

"Well, technically I let you win, but hey, you deserved it, bro," Mikey said honestly.

"This is awesome," Raph said, now a bit happier now.

"Yeah, well your success was based solely upon the wound you received from Induna for I sincerely doubt Michelangelo would have let you won had your fight been under normal circumstances. What were you thinking running off like that? It was highly irresponsible and nearly got you killed.

One of Induna's teeth damaged a major vein in your leg making you bleed heavily; you lost over a pint of blood. It was pure luck that kept his teeth from damaging an artery. One of his fangs was a centimeter away from doing just that. If that had happened you would have bled to death in minutes, and you almost did even without a damaged artery. Well, minus the 'in minutes' part, no, you would have bleed to death more slowly but either way I believe I have made my point," Donatello finished hen-pecking with a dignified sniff. Raphael knew that when he went on a ramble with a bunch of big words he was really just saying that he was glad he was alright.

"Oh let the man have his rest, Donatello. He has earned it. Plus, the crowds will be awaiting to see that you are well," the Daimyo said with a wink.

"Can I sleep in for ten more minutes?" Raphael inquired.

This made everyone laugh.

"Yes, I suppose so. Though if it were up to the Master Healer he'd have you here all night," the Daimyo said which earned him a joking, cross look from the Master Healer.

"You are mistaken, Lord Daimyo, I would have him for two nights so his wound could heal up and his body recover lost blood," the Master Healer said in a matter-of-fact tone, although he still cracked a smile.

"Ah, then I suppose it is best if you stick with the healing and I watch from the side. It is your specialty," the Daimyo said, returning the smile.

Splinter came forward and kneeled beside him.

"I guess you're probably going to say what Don said, only with fewer big words," Raphael said guiltily.

"Under normal circumstances, yes, I probably would be cross with your behavior of late, but all that comes to mind when I try to be cross is how I proud I am of you," Splinter said warmly.

Raphael's heart thudded little faster. _He was proud of him…_

"Although your brother Michelangelo might have given up his own position as the Battle Nexus Champion, you still went two full rounds with your injury, as well as defeated Induna who gave you the injury in the first place.

Not that I am advising you to do it again," Splinter ended quickly, giving him a look that said, "If you ever nearly give me a heart attack again I will kick your arse."

"You have my word, Master Splinter," Raphael said.

"So, are you ready to return to the arena yet?" the Daimyo asked.

"I think so," Raphael said. Slowly, he shifted his weight as he sat up then slowly got to his feet, leaning on Mikey's and Don's shoulders for support. Standing up fully- resting very little weight on his injured leg which was doing remarkably better- Raphael looked around the room at those that had gathered. Splinter offered him his cane, to which Raphael graciously accepted.

The Daimyo lifted his staff and they were engulfed with gentle blue light and disappeared, reappearing where the Daimyo watched the tournament. Seeing that Raphael was alright, the crowd erupted into applause.

"I apologize for keeping you all waiting so long. Our new champion sustained an injury earlier and needed medical attention," the Daimyo said to the crowds. "Now, without further a due," the Daimyo turned to Raphael and took the… crown of leaves that the Greeks wore (LOL, I can't remember what it's called ^^;) that the Gyoji handed to him and put it on Raphael's head. Then he took the trophy that the Gyoji also handed to him and gave it to Raph.

"The new Battle Nexus Champion is Raphael of Third Earth," The Ultimate Daimyo announced, making the crowd roar even louder.

Raphael looked at the trophy with great interest. It had four light blue blocks and the top one was topped with a small gold plate that had, "Battle Nexus Champion Raphael" engraved on it. It seemed as though they captured some of his essence in the trophy for it had two gold crossed sais engraved on the top block.

The Daimyo waited for the applause to die down before he continued. "Due to the unfortunates of the last Battle Nexus, it was decided that this year there would be a brief celebration this year. For the next three days, there will be festivities in the grounds outside of the arena. I hope that you all enjoy them and take the time to stick around," he announced.

This seemed to fair especially well with the merchants and the appreciative applause escalated immediately to a roar.

"Hey Master Splinter, can we stick around for a few days?" Mikey asked eagerly.

The rat hesitated. "I'm not sure…,"

"Oh come on, Master Splinter, half of us are injured already. The least we can do is just hang out for a while. Like a vacation that we never get to have on Earth because people freak out when they see giant turtles partying on a beach," Mikey begged.

"I hate to say it, but Mikey does make a valid point," Donny stated.

Leonardo and Raphael nodded their agreement.

The old rat let out a sigh. "I believe I am outnumbered," Splinter said.

"Yes!" Mikey said, pumping his fist in the air.

"In that case, then I shall provide your rooms for your stay here," the Ultimate Daimyo said with a nod.

"Thank you, Lord Daimyo," Splinter said with a bow.

"No, it is my honor to serve three Battle Nexus Champions," the Daimyo said with a grin. He then looked over at Donatello and Leonardo. "You two have better catch up with the rest of your family. I will be expecting to see you two winning in the next tournaments," he said with a wink.

"Hehehe," Donny said while rubbing the back of his head and Leo looked away slightly embarrassed.

"Well what are we waiting for? I'm hungry. Let's hit the snack bar," Mikey said with a grin.

"Is food all you think about?" Raphael asked.

"No, it's just one of the things I think about most often. Hey do you think they have pizza?"

"Why would they have pizza? It's only on Earth."

"How do you know? Have you been to every planet in the multi-verse?"

"How do you know they do have it?"

"Well...,"

As Raphael and Michelangelo continued to argue, the five of them started to walk, on their way to the shops outside of the arena. The Daimyo watched the two of them and chuckled with a shake of his head. _Kids,_ he thought with a smile. A moment of sadness clouded his eyes as he thought about his own son, but he quickly pushed it out of his head...

**Ah, the calm before the storm... ENJOY IT WHILE IT LAST MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA :D**


	6. Chapter 6

**Remember when I said the calm before the storm? Well... I kinda lied unintentionally ^^; You see, after my original Chapter 6 got to over 6,000 words and I wasn't even half way done, I decided to divide it up into three chapters to make it easier for everybody to read it and make more stopping points. Sorry about the inconvenience. Hope this and the next chapter make up for it. And please, review people. Reviews go a million miles for my writing self esteem :D.**

_He watched them. As they enjoyed themselves at the market, He was always there, keeping an eye on them, observing them- finding ways for how He could manipulate them. Last time, His plans had backfired due to interference by the meddlesome lion cub, but this time, no one would get in His way. That cub had spoiled His plans, and now he would pay. And these turtles would help Him do it unnoticed….._

Out in the market, Mikey was clearly enjoying himself, studying everything that the vendors had on display. Everything from food, to mirrors, to jewelry, to weapons… anything went. If it was there, you could be sure Mikey was looking at it, had looked at it, or was going to look at it.

Leonardo's interest was a bit more specified. He was particularly attracted to vendors with swords and other blades on display, as well as mats, blankets, and books.

Donatello was drawn like a moth to a flame to what technology was there. Not many people were selling it, but of the ones that were, Donny was keenly interested in them, asking them many questions about what merchandise they had on display. He also was interested in the herb stands, him being the main doctor of the family.

Splinter it seemed had settled comfortably at a tea stand and was testing out their brews with gusto, carefully keeping an eye on his sons all the while.

Raphael had eyes only for the weapons, although it seemed many had eyes on him, seeing as he was the newest Battle Nexus Champion. Many of them were young children of many different kinds of creatures, and they looked at him with innocent curiosity. Even though he wasn't too interested in kids himself, he had to admit, some of them were pretty cute. Especially the way they followed him around, trying to act discreet, but failing in the end.

Other than the children, there were also several male warrior figures that looked at him with interest, as though they were considering asking him some questions. If they did ask, Raphael was afraid he'd have to disappoint them because there weren't too many moves he could show them in his wounded state without getting snapped at by Splinter to be more careful. Of course, he could always just tell them to run strait and strike as many times as they could in a reckless charge. _That would give them something to work on, _Raphael thought with a smirk. Nobody could charge recklessly like he could.

Acting less discreetly than even the children was a trio of female characters, lizard like creatures from the looks of it, although he couldn't quite be sure. They had long legs and tails as well as short, stiff spikes running down their backs. One was brown in color and had blue eyes, the one in the middle was a deep, forest green color and had bright green eyes, and the other was charcoal in color and had yellow eyes.

The three of them kept on whispering, looking at him, and giggling. They looked to be about just a year or two younger than he was. Although he wasn't very interested in girls himself do to the limited and virtually nonexistent amount of females of his species, he had to admit the one in the middle was pretty cute…

Just then, he was a bit distracted by two young boys that resembled foxes running past him. His curiosity aroused, he watched them. They seemed to be going over to a stand with a bunch of meats. He had to admit, they did a good job of doing it discreetly, merely looking like they were playing a game of tag. One of them went in front of the stand and disappeared from view while the other ran past it and turned the corner, possibly chasing after the other.

Then, a bit to Raphael's surprise the one that had supposedly gone behind the meat stand and turned the corner poked his red, foxy head out from behind the stand and grinned impishly at the meat stand's vendor, a hairy, bear-like creature that had a long tail, sharp claws, a very muscular body, and a face like a boar.

The fox child made a whistle and seconds later the other darted back around the corner. He took something out of a pack on his hip and threw it at the meat merchant whose back was turned and darted out of view. Three eggs hit him square in the back.

Whirling around with an angry snarl, the bear-like meat merchant looked around savagely- searching for who threw the eggs- and his curved tusks glinted dangerously sharp. While he was distracted, the fox child who had hidden behind the meat stand quickly grabbed three strings of meat before quickly ducking down. Not a moment too soon either, for the merchant turned around again to his meat stand.

His eyes narrowed as he tried to figure out what was different, and then he growled when he realized that some of his meat was missing. Letting out a brief roar of frustration the man approached the meat stand. "Who stole my meats?" he said angrily to anyone who dared to answer.

As he approached, Raphael realized that the fox child was about to be caught. Although Raphael could see his little face behind the stand as the child watched the massive man's feet draw nearer, the tender himself was too tall to see him. But that would change very soon.

Not wanting the little fox kit to get caught by the dangerous looking bear-man, Raphael did the first thing that came into his mind; he laughed. The bear tender heard his laugh and immediately turned to investigate. Seeing Raphael, his eyes narrowed.

"Do you think this is funny?" the tender growled.

"You? No. Me? Yes, very funny," Raphael said coolly.

"Aren't you the smart one," the meat man said. "Did you see who was throwing eggs at me?"

"No," Raphael lied easily.

"Are you sure? Because I don't believe you," the bear-like tender said.

"Maybe a chicken flew over," Raphael replied smartly.

Many spectators of the scene laughed, including the lizard girls- especially the middle one who had a very nice laugh Raph noticed- and even the bear- tender himself chuckled.

"You're clever, I'll give you that much," the tender said. "Smarter than the last Nexus Champion at least. I saw your brother demolish a stand last tournament. Glad to see you're a bit sharper."

"Thank you," Raphael responded with a wide grin, savoring the fond memory of Mikey's mishap. While he distracted the tender, he was pleased to see that the fox child got up and ran to the corner with the meats, turning and giving him a look of thanks before darting out of view.

"Raphael Hamato, right?" the tender asked.

Raphael nodded.

"Well, Raphael, I am Caito Scrier. It is a pleasure to meet you," Caito said, calming down a bit.

"Same here," Raphael responded cheerfully.

Caito smiled then said darkly, "If you ever find out who threw those eggs, don't hesitate to tell me."

"Don't worry, I will," Raphael falsely promised, crossing his fingers behind his back, something quite like Mikey would do.

His brief talk with the boar faced tender over, Raphael followed in the direction that the fox child had disappeared. Since he had to use Splinter's cane, he was a bit slower than normal.

However, seeing as the children were like ninja apprentices themselves, Raphael let his own ninja instincts- as well as his ears which heard them giggling- to an alleyway behind an inn. There he found the two mischievous boys sharing two of the three strings of meat. They hadn't noticed him yet, so he leaned on the wall and watched them for a moment.

They were a lot cuter than a lot of the creatures he had seen here. The one who had stolen the meats had bushy, soft red fur and a white underbelly. His tail was tipped with white and he had little whiskers growing out on his snout. The other who had thrown the eggs had grey fur with a peppering of red fur. His underside too was white. Both of them had on dark brown baggy pants with many patches in them, as well as dirty shirts with holes. Raphael could tell that they grew up on the street. Both of them had warm brown eyes, filled with life.

"You know stealing is a crime in some places," Raphael said with his arms crossed as he continued to lean against the wall.

The two fox kits jumped up and looked at him, and both appeared very startled. When the red one saw who Raphael was, he visibly relaxed. The grey one seemed to know who he was and relaxed a bit as well. Perhaps the other had told him what Raph had done.

"Thanks for not ratting us out, mister," the red one said humbly, obviously very grateful.

"No problem kid," Raphael said. He looked at the meats. "My guess is you weren't intending on paying for those, was it?"

The two kits looked at each other sheepishly before looking back at him at shaking their cute little heads.

"No, sir. We don't have any money," the grey one said. His voice was slightly deeper than the other's.

"I see." Raphael studied them for a moment. "So why'd you take three? There are only two of you."

"Our mother, sir; she needs to eat too. She's been sick for some time so we've been bringing her food. Or, yes, stealing it," the red one said honestly, "But we don't have much choice sir. Nobody trusts vulpeses so we can't work for it. Especially not young ones like us. Everybody thinks we steal by nature, but we really just do it because nobody gives us a chance and we have to eat somehow," the grey one said, looking a little unhappy.

Raphael thought for a minute as he studied the vulpes kits (for now he knew what their kind was). "Tell you what kids; I'll trust 'ya. Now, where's this mother of yours?" Raphael asked.

The vulpes children's faces broke into wide grins. "This way, sir," the red one said, darting up to him and tugging his hand. Raphael obliged and let the eager little kit lead him.

"It's not that far sir," the grey one said, coming up and grabbing his other hand.

"Okay. So, do you two got names?" Raphael asked.

"Uh-huh. I'm Keat and he's Hido," the red one said.

"Keat and Hido, huh? Okay, well my name's Raphael. Now, I just have one thing I want you two to do," Raphael said.

"What's that, sir?" the two kits asked simultaneously.

"Stop calling me sir. Raph will do just fine," the turtle said.

"Okay, sir-oops," the red one giggled, "I mean, Raph."

As the two eccentric kits led him out of the alleyway and on to where their mother was, Raphael caught a glimpse of Induna. The lion-faced boy was standing on the other side of the street watching him and the two boys. Raphael didn't know why, but for some reason the warrior seemed fascinated by them, like he couldn't quite grasp the concept of having two little kids tug someone around like that. His eyes seemed to be swirling with conflicting emotions of jealousy, yearning, and confusion.

When their eyes met, Induna seemed to snap out of whatever state he had been in and his eyes hardened somewhat as though to cover up some weakness. They softened again almost immediately though, and he looked like he was considering coming over to him. Induna took a step, hesitated, then stopped and turned away- his tail unhappily still- as he disappeared behind a building.

"What's the matter, Raph?" Hido asked.

Raphael hadn't realized it, but he had slowed down when he saw Induna. "It's nothing," Raphael said as he sped up again, limping faster with the cane. The two kits considered him for a moment before they shrugged it off and forgot about it. Then, like two furry little waterfalls, the two kits started rapidly talking about their mother. Raphael had to focus hard on the two kits to understand what they were saying they were saying it fast, and they kept on taking turns saying things. _They are definitely brothers,_ Raphael thought._ Only brothers could talk like this._ Still, even with the two fast talking kits, Raphael still couldn't quite push Induna's expression out of his mind…

Raphael collapsed onto his futon (bed) with a groan. "Man, those kids were little monsters," Raphael groaned to no one in particular.

"Now you know how I feel, raising four of you," Splinter said.

"I have whole new levels of respect for you," Raphael said as he rubbed his sore neck.

Splinter chuckled. "You might be stiff from their games, but I do sense that you enjoyed yourself."

"Yeah, you have a point there," Raphael admitted.

"You know it's funny Raph, I always thought that the three things you hated the most were dogs, kids, and spiders, yet you just spent several hours with all three," Mikey said. "You spent time with two _kids_ that were foxes- that are in the _dog_ family- that live in a house with lots of _spiders._ So have I been totally wrong about the things you hate?" Mikey asked.

"Yep, I guess so," Raphael answered.

The two fox children had led him to a small, run down shack that seemed to be just as patched up as the clothes on their backs. Quietly opening the door, the two kits had led him into a small, single roomed home.

There had been one bed in the far corner where an adult vulpes lay, obviously ill. There was a small table with only two chairs and two mats and blankets laid out on the floor, where the two kits presumably slept. It was a very sad sight, Raphael thought.

Keat and Hido both seemed to lose their loud and cheery voices and quietly walked up to their mother, who seemed to be sleeping. They both gently pawed at her arm to get her to wake up.

When she did, she coughed before- with the help of her children- sat up and looked around weakly. Unlike the two kits, her eyes seemed dark and glazed over, Raphael noticed. When she saw him, she offered a weak smile.

Raphael learned from listening to what the kits had told him and what little their mother- Suwi- said that she had been experiencing a cough, chills, a high fever, and dizziness. Raphael was no doctor, but he did recognize enough of the symptoms to have some idea as to what she had.

Already becoming quite attached to the little vulpes family, Raphael didn't hesitate in going out with the two little kits to an herb stand, where he got the necessary herbs and brought them back to the family. He was sure to buy enough for the kits to be able to use until their mother got better. It was fortunate that Battle Nexus Champions got discounts, because it was rather pricy.

Giving the kits instructions, he supervised them as he taught them how to make an herb treatment for their mother. Satisfied that they knew how to do it, Raphael let them give it to her.

Although he knew the herb concoction to be very bitter from his own experiences, the vixen didn't seem too phased by it and ate all of it before washing it down with some water. She then slowly drifted back to sleep.

Curious as to where their father was, Raphael asked them. They replied unhappily that he had been bitten by a sawgi and died from the poison. Raphael discovered that a sawgi was some kind of large water snake.

Satisfied that she was going to be alright, Raphael had taken the two back down to the meat vender and given them the money to pay for the meats that they had stolen. They seemed a bit frightened at the prospect of coming face to face with the vender at first, but they seemed a bit more secure knowing that Raph would be there.

Explaining themselves and offering the money to the bear like tender, the man reacted better than Raphael had expected. It seemed he had a bit of a soft spot for children since he had one himself and was appreciative about honesty. Taking the money, he gave them two more strings of meat for free much to their delight.

Afterwards while passing by a weapon shop, Raphael stopped and asked the two if they were fussy eaters. They replied no, saying they would eat any food they could get. Raphael smiled before telling to wait as he entered the shop. Upon returning outside, he gave them two new bows and quivers of arrows, which made them very excited.

The next two hours he spent teaching them how to use them to catch their own food so they wouldn't have to steal. He told them if they got big enough game that a butcher shop would kindly exchange it for money. As it turned out, the two were natural archers and also adept climbers. One thing he always told them to do was to take their arrows out of whatever they killed so they wouldn't run out. Raphael didn't know too many snares, but the ones he did he taught them how to make as well. _Give a man a fish and he'll be full for a night. Teach to fish and he'll be full for life,_ Raphael thought, remembering one of Splinter's favorite sayings to… well, say.

Afterwards, the two fox kits had engaged him in several games including tag, hide-and-go-seek, climbing contests, archery contests, stone skipping contests (they found a small pond outside of the market place in the surrounding woods), and many other games. By the time he dropped the two off to go back home himself when it became dark, Raphael had been sore, tired, and pretty beaten up from the duo's play, but overall, very happy.

Right now, his bed felt really good and he easily relaxed. "Well, good night," Donny said as he dimmed the lantern by his bed. His brothers and sensei followed suit and went to sleep…

* * *

**Well, I hope you enjoyed that :) Please review.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Okay, now THIS is the calm before the storm. Don't worry, I'm not going to change it :D**

Raphael woke up with a start, panting and sweating. He slowly sat up, wiping the sweat off his face with the back of his arm. Looking around the room, he saw everything was fine and all of his brothers and sensei appeared to be sleeping. With a sigh, he thought back to what had waked him up.

He had been dreaming about Induna. In his dream, the two of them had been in the market place alone. Everything was completely quiet; there was no sound. Induna had looked exactly like he had when Raphael had seen him back at the market; the same jealous, yearning, and confused look as before.

He had just turned away and started to disappear into the alleyway when Raph called out to him, trying to stop him. No sound came out. His lips moved and he felt his throat vibrating, but he couldn't hear a thing. Neither could Induna.

Taking off after him, Raphael had followed him into the alley. The alley was strait and didn't stop. It soon gave way to the forest, where Raph had to duck and weave to avoid hitting trees and branches. No matter how fast he ran Induna never got any closer.

Then it opened up to an open clearing with a large rock in the middle. Induna had stopped running and was staring up at something on top of the rock. Looking up, Raphael saw another lion humanoid, only this one had pitch black fur illuminated only by the full moon.

The black lion raised a bow and arrow and aimed it and Induna's heart. Raphael tried to scream out at him to move, but Induna seemed petrified. The black lion shot the arrow and killed Induna before his eyes turned to Raph. He couldn't feel his legs and couldn't move. All he could see was the black lion's yellow eyes. The black lion moved slowly at first as he put his bow and arrows away before leaping down and running at him, letting out a roar just as he leaped and went for Raphael's throat…

That was when Raphael had woken up and found everything to be alright. Laying back down, Raphael tried to get back to sleep but to no avail. He couldn't get Induna's face out of his head and it haunted just like it had in his dreams. After laying on his futon for about half an hour, Raphael pulled back his blanket and quietly got up. Then out of habit he grabbed his sais, which had been lying above his head. Laying the bed back neatly, he silently made his way for the door. He just made it to the door and opened it when- "Where are you going?"

Raphael quickly turned and saw Leo sitting up in his bed, looking at him expectantly. Leo had been the one closest to the door and had also been the one who whispered.

"Out. I need to get some air," Raphael answered in an equally hushed voice.

Leonardo looked at the sais in his belt. "Typically when you say you're going out it means you're going to use those," Leo said as he pointed at the weapons.

"We aren't home, Leo. It never hurts to be too careful," Raphael said.

Leo considered him for a moment before nodding. "Okay, go," he said.

Raphael nodded before walking out and quietly pulling the door shut behind him.

Taking his time walking out of the Daimyo's castle (for that was where he had provided a room), Raphael planned his course of action. He needed to find Induna. He just couldn't get the kid out of his head and it was starting to drive him crazy. Plus, he wanted to find out more about him. Like why he was so defensive all the time, and why he took his anger out on everybody when he fought, and what his deal was back at the market.

When he stepped out into the cool night air, Raphael took out his shell cell and read the time; 9:00 p.m. Seeing that not too many people were up and about at this time, Raphael headed for the best place to find people; a bar. Finding one with relative ease for there were very few places still making noise at this hour, Raphael pushed the door opened and walked in.

There were many creatures drinking and laughing at the tables and the bar as well. Many of them saw him and recognized him and invited him to drink but Raphael ignored them. Walking up to the bar he took a seat and looked at the bar tender.

"I'm looking for Induna Adehal. Have you seen him around?" he asked.

The bar tender- a slim creature with blue and white skin as well as many tentacles- looked at him for a moment and pondered his question. "He was one of the competitors in the tournament… the lion right?" the bar tender asked in confirmation. Raphael nodded.

"Ah, yes, I remember now. Yes, he was here for a short while, an hour or so ago. He had a drink and left."

"Did he say where he was going?" Raphael asked. The bar tender shook his head. Two of his tentacles poured a drink and handed it to a nearby creature. _That's not weird at all._

"I's know wheeerre 'e isss mayybee," a nearby costumer-obviously very drunk- slurred. Raphael turned his attention to him.

"'E's in zuh same hotel as mee. Just the roooom straaaight acrossed," the creature slurred.

"Where's this hotel?" Raphael asked.

"It's down the street on the right three building down. Can't miss it," his more sober drinking partner answered.

"Thank you," Raphael said as he got up and walked out of the bar. Following the man's directions, he found the hotel. It was a good thing that the creature had given him directions because he never would have known the beaten old two-story shack was a hotel just from looking at it. There was a faded sign hanging above the door with words on it that Raph couldn't quite make out.

Raphael entered. Inside there was a bored looking innkeeper reading a magazine written in a foreign language. Seeing Raphael, the innkeeper immediately straightened up and put the magazine down. "Hello and welcome to the-"

"I ain't here to rent a room. I'm just looking for someone," Raphael interrupted.

"Oh, I see," the innkeeper said somewhat disappointedly.

"Do you have anyone named Induna Adehal renting a room here? He was in the Battle Nexus Tournament- the fellow who looked like a lion," Raphael elaborated.

"Yes, yes, I know who you're talking about. I've never had a competitor at my inn before him. Of course I remember him," the innkeeper said in a rushed and somewhat rude manner. He tossed Raphael a key. "He's in room B3 on the top floor," the innkeeper said, returning to his magazine.

"Thank you," Raphael said. Hesitating for a moment, he took out a gold piece from a pouch on his belt and tossed it to the man for his trouble. The innkeeper seemed very pleased.

Following his instructions, Raphael made his way up the stairs and to Induna's door number. He knocked gently on the door. "Induna, are you there?" he called and then listened. There was no answer. He knocked again; Still no answer. Raphael knocked harder; still nothing. Giving up, he took the key the innkeeper had given him and opened the door.

Pulling it open and looking inside, he found a small room with a neatly made bed, a small dresser, and a couch in fairly good condition. There was one window and Induna was sitting on the window sill, looking out at the full moon. "Induna?" Raphael asked cautiously.

"And here I thought if I said nothing you'd go away; Guess not," Induna said with a sigh. "Might as well sit down," he said, gesturing towards the couch with a wave of his paw. Raphael closed the door then made his way over to the couch and sat down.

It was a while before either of them spoke. "I always loved looking at the full moon," Induna said finally. "It reminds me of my father's symbol."

"What was your father's symbol?" Raphael asked.

"A moonlight hawk," Induna answered.

"I don't think we have those on my planet," Raphael said.

"A moonlight hawk is the largest bird of prey in our country. Its feathers are always silver, except for a crest of white feathers on its head. Its eyes are silvery as well, just like the moon. They're aggressive and silent and only hunt at night. They can catch anything smaller than themselves and they're quite large. The moonlight hawk has a wingspan of about fifteen feet and their wings are very strong. I've seen one pick up a 90 pound shovel hog before while hunting. We only have them in our country during winter, so they're called winter hawks sometimes too," Induna said, still looking out at the moon.

"What is your father like?" Raphael asked.

"You mean was like," Induna corrected.

"Oh, I didn't realize that he was dead," Raphael said softly.

Induna shrugged. "It doesn't matter to me either way. Doesn't change a thing," he said.

"So, what was he like?" Raphael asked gently, rephrasing his question.

Induna thought about it for a moment. "I can't really remember. I was so young when he… died," he answered. "But I do remember he was really strong. He would practice with the generals and he beat them every time. I always loved to watch him.

My father was kind too. Even though he was king, he would never act like he was better than anybody else."

"He was a king?" Raphael asked with surprise.

Induna nodded in response. "Yes, he was." Induna hesitated for a second. "I was his only offspring, so I'm supposed to rule in his place once I'm an adult."

"That's great," Raphael said.

"You may think it's great, but I'm really not looking forward to it," Induna said bitterly.

"Why?" Raphael asked.

Induna was silent for a moment. "Do you want to know how my father died?" he asked.

"Um… okay if you want to tell me," Raphael said, not expecting the question.

Induna took a deep breath and gathered his thoughts. "My father was the king of Shaidar, the largest country in Shagen. It is very similar to your country's Africa from what I have heard. Aside from having the largest country, we also were the most powerful. My own clan has been ruling for over five hundred years.

Although my father- Shasti- was well like by almost everyone and ruled fairly, there was one person in my clan who didn't like him. His name was Malacom.

He was one of the very few felideds that had a black pelt, a very defining feature in our clan that has always symbolized a bad omen, for every black furred felided has always ended up turning bad no matter what.

Right from the start, he was not the best character. He got into lots of fights and stirred up trouble. Although these weren't good things, they weren't the worst. Malacom was exceedingly jealous in nature.

He and my father both fell in love with the same lioness, Chisui. Although their rivalry for her affections didn't seem dangerous at first, it soon escalated. One time, Malacom was sent with fourteen other felideds to patrol our eastern border where rumors of a coming war were being spread. While he was away, my father proposed to my mother and she said yes.

When Malacom returned and found out, he was very angry. He was so angry that he challenged my father- who was by that time king- to duel. Although in your country it might be different, in our country declaring a duel with the king is always a duel to the death, and if the challenger wins he takes the crown and all of the previous king's possessions. This would have included Chisui's hand in marriage.

Although he fought well and almost over powered my father, Malacom failed. Like I have stated, my father was a fair ruler and knowing Malacom's own affections for Chisui he understood his actions and had mercy on him. Instead of killing him, he was exiled.

Malacom was in exile for five years before he came back. By this time I had already been born. I remember I was playing hide and seek with my father and it was my turn to hide. He was searching for me and had almost found me hiding behind a curtain when Malacom entered the room through the door. My father turned to hear the noise, but when he did Malacom through a knife into his heart and killed him. I watched as my father collapsed to the floor.

Being very young then, I didn't know any better and ran out to my father. Malacom saw me and started to advance towards me. When I saw that my father wasn't going to get back up, I ran back to where the curtain was. Thinking that I was trying to hide from him Malacom didn't advance any faster. Although unknown to him there was a sheet of metal in the wall that we could slide open and closed during the summer to keep it cool and I slid this open and squeezed into it. It wasn't until Malacom ripped the curtain back that he saw that I had escaped.

He tried to get me, but he couldn't reach me. Eventually he had to give up because more guards were coming- for later I learned that the original guards that had been guarding the door had all been killed by him. I was the only one who bore witness to my father's murder. If I hadn't later told my mother what I had seen, they wouldn't have known it was Malacom and they wouldn't have been able to begin a massive and unsuccessful search for him. I was the only person that Malacom ever failed to kill. And my mother knew it too.

Knowing that Malacom might try to kill me for ruining his plans, my mother became extremely protective of me. She had twice as many guards as normal for me after my father was killed. Our Elders also knew that he might- would- try again, and ordered that I be trained how to fight immediately.

My mother died about two years afterwards in a fire in the plains that had been deemed accidental although I don't believe it. My mother could run longer and faster than anyone, even my father. I grew up alone without any friends or any parents. Without parents, the Elders took over and saw to it that I was prepared to become king from a very young age. In the nine years after my father's death, I only left the palace fourteen times, and all of those fourteen times I snuck out… this is my fourteenth time.

The Elders would have never risked my life at this tournament, even if it is non-lethal. They weren't willing to have my bloodline die out. So, I took a little bit of money, wrote a note telling them I'd be back in a couple of days, and snuck away. You might think I'm crazy doing something like this, but living back there was really crazy. I never could do anything on my own. I always had someone looking over my shoulder. I hated it. And once I become king it will be twice as bad," Induna finished his story, looking quite unhappy. Then he looked up at Raphael for the first time during his visit.

"I guess that's why I treat everyone so poorly. I've never had any freedom before, and now that I have some… well, I guess I've just kind of gone wild with it. Back home I never get to fight with anyone strong enough that they could hurt me. That's so boring! I have more fun fighting the wall then I do other people. It's different here, you know. Nobody cares if you're a king, or a prince, or just some street kid. In the tournament, you're here to fight.

Plus, I kind of have another reason for coming to the tournament. Before my father was murdered he was making plans to come to the Battle Nexus Tournament and compete. He never got the change to, though. I wanted to come here and fight for him, and maybe win too. I guess I got at least half of that done," Induna said with a brief smile before it saddened again.

"I'm not going to lie to you; I'm jealous. You have a family, freedom, and a comfortable home some place. Me- I'm all alone, trapped in a box, and I'm getting sick and tired of seeing walls everywhere I look. You have what I want the most."

"So, all those ill feelings you had for me… were because you were jealous of me?" Raphael asked.

"More than you can imagine," Induna said. He hesitated. "I'm sorry attack your brother and sensei like I did and I'm sorry I attacked you. Now- I just want to be friends, if you wouldn't mind?"

"Welcome to the Hamato Clan's growing friend list," Raphael said with a smile. "And to think, I came here anticipating that I would have to force a confession out of you."

Induna smiled gratefully and perhaps a little apologetically before reaching into his pocket and taking something out. "Here, I want you to have this. For being the first friend I've ever had," Induna said, handing the object to Raphael.

Taking it, Raphael held it up. It was a pin with a moonlight hawk engraved into it in silver. It was an impressive bird. It looked like an eagle with a crown like crest of feathers on its head.

"It was my fathers. I've held onto it ever since he died, but now I want you to keep it," Induna said with earnest.

"Are you sure?" Raphael asked.

Induna nodded.

"Well, thank you, Induna. I appreciated it very much," Raphael said truthfully, putting the pin into a pouch on his belt.

"Not as much as I appreciate having a friend finally," Induna answered.

Raphael smiled before yawning, rubbing his eyes and stretching.

"You're tired. You should go home and get some rest," Induna said.

"Yeah, perhaps you're right. I'm not naturally nocturnal like you are," Raphael said with a tired smile.

Getting up, Raphael said a warm "Good night" and then exited the room.

Even after Raphael left the room, Induna was still smiling. However, a whistling noise got his attention and he turned just as two arrows came through the window and pierced into his flesh, knocking him off the window sill and onto the floor.

**WUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! And just when you were all starting to change your opinions of Induna being a big jerk to being a good guy :D Don't worry, there's more evil to come ^.^ :D Please review, even if it is just to say that I'm evil like that ^^.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Thank you everyone for being so patient. I was busy for a few days and on Thursday I had a concert after school so I didn't have time to write. I thank you all for the comments as well as for noticing grammer errors such as "strait" should have been "straight". I was aware of these errors but when I caught them after I posted the chapter at about 11p.m. at night I was too tired to go back and change them. Thank you all for reviewing and if you catch any other errors don't hesitate to tell me.**

Induna gasped in pain from the two arrows now imbedded in his abdomen as a pool of blood quickly began to form around his body. A black shadow dropped down onto the open window sill and entered the room.

"Malacom," Induna gasped weakly, staring up at the yellow eyes with hatred.

"My, my, haven't you grown," Malacom said with a twitch of a smile. "You shouldn't have interfered when I killed your father. You made the entire country go into a manhunt for me. I don't enjoy having to hide out in caves just to avoid being killed. It makes me claustrophobic."  
"Just shut up!" Induna snarled.

"Still feisty even in that condition," Malacom said sadly as he looked down at Induna who was getting weaker and weaker as his blood poured out of his body. "You would have made your daddy proud," he said with a snicker.

"Don't talk about my father like that. He was better than you ever were!" Induna growled angrily as he tried to sit up, but failed.

"As much as I would love to sit here and reminisce about the past, I have a turtle to frame and a kingdom to overthrow," Malacom said mildly. Then he leaned forward. "And for that to happen, you need to die."

Induna's eyes widened. "You mean-"

"Yes, that's right. Your little buddy Raphael is going to be framed for your murder. It's such a shame. He had such talent. So much hatred and rage in his soul. It really touched my heart," Malacom said with fake sadness.

"You have no heart," Induna spat.

Malacom smiled before taking out a knife and throwing it into Induna's heart. Induna let out one more shaky breath before he fell silent. "Like father like son," Malacom muttered. Then he took the arrows and the knife out of his body before he took out two sais that looked very much like Raphael's.

Then he put them into the two wounds that the arrows had made and deepened the wounds. Then he took one of the sais and put it into the heart wound before he completely covered the blade of the sais in his blood. Satisfied he then took the sais and left the room. Going outside he took the sais to a nearby fountain and washed them off, careful to leave faint traces of blood at the hilt and that it still smelled of blood.

Satisfied with his handiwork, Malacom went to the Daimyo's palace. Knowing from following the turtles where their room was, he waited for Raphael on top a beam in their room. When Raphael entered the room he quietly made his way back to his bed. He took his sais out and put them in the same place above his head.

Malacom waited wordlessly for two hours before he moved. As silent as a shadow, he dropped down to the ground. Using the silence that his padded feed provided, he quickly made his way over to Raphael. Then he switched the tainted sais he had with the regular sais that Raphael had. No one would ever know the difference just by looking at them.

His mission complete, Malacom quickly got out of the palace. Once he was outside, he allowed himself the smile that he had been holding in. Now all he had to do was wait…

- Raphael was awakened from a peaceful sleep by the sound of the door being forced open and being shaken roughly awake. "Whad'a 'ell?" Raphael muttered groggily as two armed guards grabbed his arms and forcefully twisted them behind his back and tied them together. "Hey, Ow! That hurts, knock it off!" Raphael demanded much more awake now.

"Silence!" one of the guards snapped. Raphael obliged, but bitterly.

"What are you doing? Let him go!" Mikey shouted trying to get to him but two more guards held him back.

"What is the meaning of this?" Splinter demanded more calmly than Mikey or Raph, but still smoldering.

The guard did not answer. They ushered Raph out, and his brothers and sensei followed close behind, determined not to let him out of theirs sight. The Daimyo was waiting outside the door for them, a stressed and worried look on his face.

"Daimyo, what is going on? What are they accusing my son of doing?" Splinter demanded.

The Daimyo sighed before looking at him with sympathy. His mask was off. "It would be best if you come with me and find out for yourselves," the Daimyo said, and then turned and followed the guards without waiting see if they would follow. They did.

As they followed the Daimyo who walked rapidly through the halls, they passed through parts of his palace that they had never been in before. Then, they followed the guards who had Raphael into a large circular room with stands surrounding it on all sides except for the door. On the opposite side of the room there was forty or so very solemn looking felideds in white robes. Looking at them, Raph had a bad feeling that these were the Elders that Induna had told him about. _Why do they want me?_ Raphael thought rapidly._ For befriending a to-be king who ran away from home?_

When he got right in front of them the guards stopped him and then took their spots on the walls. Looking more closely, he could now see that all of the guards were felideds as well. Deciding that now would be a really bad time to show his temper Raphael bowed to the Elders respectfully before asking as respectfully as he could, "Why am I here?"

One of the Elders- apparently the one in charge- stood up and looked him in the eye. "Are you aware that Induna Adehal is the king of our nation, Shaidar?" the man asked.

"Well, actually from what he told me he's going to be king when he's old enough, but yes, I was aware of that," Raphael said. "Did you know that he ran away?"

"Yes. He told me ran away to compete in the Battle Nexus Tournament. He told me he did it for his father."

"When did he tell you this?" "Last night."

This seemed to make everyone fall silent. Raphael looked around, a bit unnerved by the silence. "Is there some rule against talking to kings or something?" Raphael asked.

Ignoring the question, the felided Elder asked, "When did you speak with him?" Raphael thought for a moment.

"About nine-thirty, I suppose. Why are you asking?"

The chief Elder glanced at the others. "Induna Adehal is dead."

Raphael's face paled. "Wh-what?" Raphael stammered.

"Induna Adehal is dead. He has been murdered."

Raphael's shock slowly dissolved into anger. "Who killed him? Tell me and I'll rip his throat out!" Raphael demanded angrily, eager to avenge his new friend's death.

"We think you know the answer to that question," the chief Elder said. Raphael looked at him with confusion.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"We think you killed him," the Elder finally said. Raphael was silent for a second before it all clicked in his head what the man had said. Quite frankly, he exploded at the accusation.

"What? You think _I_ killed him? Why would I do that?" Raphael demanded angrily.

He attacked one of your brothers, your sensei, and you yourself. That wound on your leg proves that. You went to the hotel room he was renting at the time he was killed. And-" A servant rushed up to him and whispered something in his ear, "-And the physical evidence now confirms it. Your sais have his blood on them."

"I don't know how that got there," Raphael said truthfully. Leo looked at him with horror, thinking how he had let him out that very same night with his sais…

"Then how did it get there?" the Elder demanded.

"I don't know," Raphael shouted. "Maybe Induna has enemies. Did you ever consider that? Any of them could have framed me for it."

"Why would they frame you?"

"Like you just said it would make a perfect frame up if I attacked him."

"I tire of this. Just tell us what happened," the Elder said, finally losing his patience. "Maybe Malacom did it!" Raphael shouted. Silence. Instant silence.

"How do you know that name?" the chief Elder asked quietly.

"I already told you; I talked with Induna. He told me about his father. He told me he wanted to be friends with me." Raphael's voice was starting to crack, but he kept going anyway. "Have one of your guards look in the pouch on my right side. Induna gave me a pin of a moonlight hawk that his father had. He told me he gave it to me to show we were friends now."

The Elder nodded at one of the guards behind Raphael and the guard walked up to him and opened the pouch, getting the pin out and presenting it to the chief Elder. When the chief Elder saw the pin his eyes which had started to soften hardened again. "This was the only possession that Induna had of his father. He would take it everywhere with him. I don't believe you when you say that he gave it to you willingly. I do believe however that something like this would sell for a very high price in almost any market."

"What? Now you're accusing me of stealing too?" Raphael said angrily as he realized the Elder had just turned the one thing that he could use to get his freedom into the thing that was his undoing.

"I have heard and seen enough," the Elder said. He looked back up at the guards. "Take him to his cell," the felided chief said. Raphael's heart sunk as the guards led him away. As they led him out of the room he passed by his brothers and the Daimyo. The Daimyo looked like he was struggling with the decision of choosing Raphael's side or the Elders'. Splinter seemed shock and looked into his eyes, trying to find some fault, some source of guilt. He could find none and so he gave him a look that said everything would be alright. Mikey and Don both seemed to be very shocked, but at least they looked as though they still believed him. Donny looked particularly like he was struggling for all of the science that he so strongly supported was telling him not to trust him.

Of course, he saved the best for last; Leo, the same person who had let him go out that night and trusted him with not causing any trouble. Raphael didn't have to think about it to know what Leo's answer was. The stony, angry, and distrustful look in his eyes said it all. Leo didn't believe him; he'd chosen sides with the Elders.

Seeing Leo's face and meeting his eyes, Raphael shot him the most betrayed, hurt look he could muster. Raphael walked by him and continued to let the guards lead him. His feet felt like lead and his heart felt like it had sunk down into his stomach. Leo, his own brother, the brother he trusted the most, had turned his back on him…

After he had been led down into the dungeon and put in a cell guarded by four armored felideds on either side, Raphael was soon visited by his family. Splinter had begged the Daimyo to find some way to change the Elders' minds, and he had said he would try, although he looked doubtful.

Even though his family asked him many questions, Raphael didn't feel like talking, not with Leo's distrustful gaze on him. His family quickly realized that he was in no mood to talk and so they eventually fell silent, them too waiting for the Daimyo to declare Raphael's sentence to them.

After about an hour of waiting the Daimyo walked slowly down the steps. Splinter stood up and looked at him hopefully, but the Daimyo shook his head. "Raphael has been sentenced to death," he said softly.

Splinter seemed to lose all energy he had and sat shakily back down. "No," he muttered quietly as his eyes blurred with tears. "No."

"But," the Daimyo continued, "I did manage to persuade them to an alternative."

"An alternative?" Splinter looked up hopefully.

"Yes." The Daimyo hesitated. "The only alternative I could get them to agree to was the Freedom Games."

Splinter immediately paled. "No," he said immediately. "There must be another alternative you can get them to agree to."

"I'm sorry Splinter, but there is no other," the Daimyo said with a shake of his head.

"What is the Freedom Games?" Raphael asked eager to hear about his only alternative to death.

"A bloody fight to the death," Splinter said bitterly.

"Okay, I'll do it then. I might not want to kill anybody, but anything beats getting my head cut off or something like that," Raphael said quickly.

"It is more than a fight to the death, I'm afraid," the Daimyo said.

Raphael frowned. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"The Freedom Games take place in a land called Pallar," the Daimyo began, "Although that was not its original name. It was taken over by a fierce group of people that rule them cruelly. They live in what is called the Capital and make all rules for Pallar.

Pallor has been divided up into 15 Districts; each of them producing a different product which the Capital then takes and uses. The people live in pour conditions and only receive limited help from the Capital and can only keep a very small amount of the products they work hard to produce.

It has been in my interest to help overthrow their cruel reign, but the Capital is very powerful and many lives would be lost; too many to worth risking when the Capital has done no wrong to me.

Although they are very cruel, they do allow one family a chance of freedom once a year. However, in a sense it shows their very cruel nature. In every district, anyone from ages twelve to 21 years of age has to put their name into a drawing each year. Every year the amount of times an individual's name is put into the drawing is doubled. At a specific date each year a girl's name and a boy's name from each of the districts are drawn and they are then sent into the Freedom Games, where they are forced to try and kill all other competitors in the arena. There is only ever one victor.

The victor and his or her family get a large sum of money and food as well as an opportunity to leave the land and for the rest of that year their entire district receives food until a new victor from a different district emerges. The Capital may call it an act of hospitality, but it is really just a blood bath to entertain their sadistic desires."

Raphael listened to the Daimyo with horror. "And they want to… to send me there?" he said softly.

"Although I'm sure they'd much rather send you to the stockades… yes," the Daimyo answered.

Raphael was quiet for a long while. "So I'll actually have to kill people," Raphael said.

The Daimyo nodded. "Yes, eventually. The Freedom Games aren't like the Battle Nexus Tournament. One false move here and you're eliminated from the competition. One false move there and it could kill you."

Heart pounding in his chest, Raphael breathed in deeply before letting it out. He looked up at the Daimyo with a glimmer of terror reflecting in his eyes, but steadily strong. "Alright," he said, "I'll do it." …..

**Don't even bother flaming me about making Leo the big bad brother. It's going to come back and bit him in the butt and take part in a fairly major part of the story a long way's down the road so it must be done. And for anyone who was wondering, our concert was the bomb! :D ^.^ Okay so please review and I'll get the next chapter going soon :)**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hah! I promised myself I wouldn't post Chapter 9 until raphfreak posted the next chapter in Through a Dog's Eyes. You might want to keep that in mind for future chapters raphfreak hehehehe :D I'm just kidding ^^ ... Maybe :P Anyway, Chapter 9!**

The next three days went by very slowly for Raphael. The Daimyo had already explained that the Freedom Games would begin in month's time, and that the Capital would send to pick him up three days after he had been charged. All the while, Raphael was in a deep, unhappy state of mind.

He thought about Casey and April, and how he might never see them again. Raph wondered how his brothers would tell them that he might not be coming back. Then there was the longing to kick just one last Purple Dragon in the butt, or take down just one more Foot ninja, two things that he might never get to do again. Then there were worries about what he would do once he got into the arena with all those other competitors. The Daimyo had said anyone from ages 12 to 21 would be in that arena. He would have to kill children.

Raphael had never killed anyone in his life. The Shredder had been one thing, but he had been dangerous and asking for it. These competitors- these children- they were just as innocent as he was. How in the world was he supposed to kill them in cold blood?

Raphael couldn't believe that just a few days ago he was running around playing with little fox boys and checking out hot reptile chicks. He still hadn't said anything to that one cute one. He should have talked to her when he had the chance. Now he probably would never see her again.

All three nights he didn't sleep well. When he woke up on the morning the Capital would take him, he had butterflies in his stomach. The guards brought him food, but he was too nervous to eat any of it. His brothers and sensei came in about an hour before the Capital arrived and they all gave him encouragement, although Leo's encouragement still seemed a bit dry Raphael noticed. Not that it bothered him. _Leo can think what he wants_, Raphael thought. _I don't need encouragement from him if he can't even trust me._

Then finally the Daimyo stepped in with four Capital guards following him in. Raphael was surprised to see that they seemed to resemble the Daimyo for they too had the pointed ears that he had. Although they didn't have masks, Raphael had to admit they looked rather intimidating. They seemed to have tattoos of some kind on their faces, swirls and the like. Each of them had a different color. They all had metal armor with red cloth belts around their waists. Each had a sword at his waist.

One of the felided guards opened the door and Raphael slowly stepped out. The four Capital guards took him by his arms and led him out. He paused by his family for a second.

"Do not fear, my son. We will find a way to help you," Splinter said with his eyes shimmering, though from tears and overwhelming emotions or from his determination, Raphael couldn't be sure.

"I just hope it's not before it's too late," Raphael said miserably. Splinter's eyes darkened again.

"Don't talk like that. You will make it out of this. I know it," Splinter said fiercely.

"Yeah Raph, you're our secret weapon. You can't die," Mikey chirped, looking with puppy dog-like love and affection.

Donny nodded while Leo remained still and silent.

His brief conversation with his family over, the guards nodded at the Daimyo who raised his war staff. Raphael and the four guards were slowly surrounded in a blue light before they disappeared. Raphael had a slight dizzy sensation before he and the guards reappeared.

Raphael found himself on a platform before a train. It was dark out where ever they were although where they were he wasn't quite sure. All around the train platform and train tracks were open rolling fields for miles around from the looks of it. They were faintly illuminated with the light from a moon above, which gave the grass a grey, dead appearance. The slightest touch of light was just starting to show on one horizon. "Where are we?" Raphael asked the guards.

"We are on the outskirts of Pallar," one of the guards answered.

"Is all of Pallar this… barren?" Raphael asked.

"No. Now stop talking," another more rude guard said curtly.

Raphael made a "tich" sound before falling silent.

Suddenly the doors to the train slid open and a woman stepped out. Raphael couldn't resist arching his eyebrows out of surprise. The woman had red hair that had to have been dyed as well as red lipstick and silvery tattoos. She had red high heels that added an extra three at least to her height and an ankle length burgundy colored skirt that made her quick steps very short as well as a matching overcoat with a white shirt underneath. All of her nails were red.

"Ah Raphael, it's so good to see you," the woman chirped cheerfully like they were old friends.

"Um… hi?" Raphael said with uncertainty.

"Oh yes, come on now, let's get going. You can release him of his bonds now," she said waving the guards away who quickly cut the ropes binding his hand behind his back. "Okay, okay, let's get going, we have a lot to do," she said making motions for him to follow her onto the train. Rubbing his wrists and not knowing what else to do, Raphael followed her.

Once on the train they entered a comfortable looking sitting room. The door slid closed behind him and Raphael was sure it wasn't opening again. "Okay, here we are. Make yourself comfortable for the ride to the Capital we have a long trip- oopsie where are my manners? I'm sorry, I'm just very busy, but that's no excuse for not being polite. I'm Elisa Rodinson and I will be your chaperone to the games so to speak. I'll be taking care of organizing your schedule, training times, and-"

"Can you please stop talking for ten seconds?!" Raphael half shouted. Elisa shot him a look of surprise before seeming to realize that she had been bombarding him words.

"Oh I'm so sorry! Did you want to say something?" she asked.

"Yeah, I did actually; a number of things in fact. First of all, where are we?" Raphael asked.

"We are on the Capital tram. It takes all of the Tributes to the Capital," Elisa said.

"So are the Tributes the competitors?" Raphael asked. Elisa nodded.

"Okay so how is all of this going to work? I know from what the Daimyo told me that there are going to be Tributes from each of the 15 Districts, but I'm not from any of the Districts," Raphael said.

"Yes of course and so the Capital has decided that there will be a temporary District 16 for your sake. Though since you are the only outsider competing we did a random drawing out of the 15 Districts and so now three more Tributes from District 3 will be part of the District 16, though if any of them win district 3 will still get the donations," Elisa said cheerfully.

Raphael got a sinking feeling in his chest. "What do you mean?"

"The Tributes have already been selected. Of course this year is the year of the Quarter Revelry so in celebration of the 16th District's defeat they had something special planned and so now there are twice as many competitors," she said mildly.

"Wait, there's _twice _as many competitors now?!" Raphael asked in a panicked voice.

"Oh yes. It means there's twice as much fun now," she said with a high happy voice that seemed very out of place for Raph.

"Do I… have a room?" Raphael asked suddenly feeling dizzy.

"Oh yes. Let me take you to it," she said.

"Thank you," he replied.

"It's my pleasure," she answered.

She then led him out of the sitting room and down a hallway with doors numbered one through four. She stopped at the fourth door. "Okay, here we are," she announced.

"Thanks," Raph said before walking into it and closing the door. There was a bed and he immediately sat down heavily on it- afraid that his legs which had now become very shaky wouldn't support him. Then he put his head in his hands and tried to calm down.

Things had just become worse, a LOT worse. One: It seemed the Tributes had already been chosen so he didn't have a clue who he was going up against. Two: It seemed as though now there would be twice as many people that he could kill now and twice as many people who could kill him. Three: Apparently he was part of some District 16 so three extra Tributes from District 3 were now a part of his 'district', meaning that he already had probably made an enemy of District 3 and the three competitors. _As soon as I step out there all Tributes from District 3 are going to kill me,_Raphael thought miserably. Not to mention he was probably on the same train as them judging from the numbered doors so he'd have to face the three people that his presence had condemned to death.

Taking a shaky breath and pulling himself together, Raphael pulled himself up into a sitting position and looked around the room. It was very well decorated with burgundy seeming to be the base color. The bed he was sitting on had a burgundy colored comforter and white sheets and pillows. The carpet was the same color and was deep and soft. There was a hardwood dresser that appeared antique on one wall and a desk with a chair- both perfectly carved- in another corner. Then there was a window which was covered by burgundy covered curtains. Then there was a light fixture above his head in the middle of the room. Everything looked very expensive.

Getting up, Raphael went to the door and opened it. Looking out he couldn't see Elisa anywhere. He had just stepped out when the door across from his opened. The young boy who opened it saw him and froze with a startled expression on his face. He had light blue spiky hair that stood up. His eyes were narrow and were sapphire blue. He had four rectangular markings on his face, two on each cheek that were the same color as his eyes and were horizontal on either cheek. The boy was very skinny as though he had never had a good meal his entire life. He was wearing a burgundy long sleeve shirt as well as pants. The fabric looked very expensive. Not quite knowing what to say, Raphael simply smiled and said, "Hello," a bit uncertainly.

The young boy seemed to come to his senses and offered a shy, "Hi."

Both of them were silent for a long while, just simply staring at each other. Finally the young boy spoke. "I… I guess you're the… other one," the boy said softly.

Raphael didn't have to guess what he meant by the other one; the other male competitor for District 16, the one that had been responsible for bringing this shy eyed boy into this mess. "Yes," Raphael said with a nod. "So, what's your name?"

"Thresh," the boy answered.

"Well, Thresh, my name's Raphael," he answered.

Thresh was silent for a moment. "I was just going to go to lunch. I think the other two are already there. Do you… want to come with me?" he asked.

"Sure," Raphael said. Thresh led Raphael down the hall to apparently what was the dining room on the train. There sat two girls and of course, Elisa, who was busy chirping away to the two girls who appeared as though they couldn't have cared less. Elisa saw them and looked up with a beaming smile. "Ah so you finally joined us. Come, come, sit down," she said cheerfully. Raphael was beginning to believe that the only mode this woman had was loud and over peppy. It was really starting to grind on his nerves.

Thresh and Raphael said down at the two empty chairs at the table. Raphael noticed that the two girls were looking at him; perhaps with a bit of anger. Raphael felt guilty and he knew why too. If he wasn't here, they wouldn't be here either. They blamed him.

On the table there was a large arrangement of seafood. From what Raphael could tell, there were a few things that looked like shrimp, clams, lobsters, and fish, but there were also others that he had no name for. All of it looked very good even though he himself was not a big seafood eater.

"Go ahead and serve yourselves. We need to get some meat on your bones," Elisa said.

Raphael shot Thresh a sideways glance. He returned the look of annoyance. _What are we, pigs going to a slaughter house?_ Raphael thought bitterly, knowing that it was actually partially true._ Anyways, I already have plenty of meat on me. Is she blind or is she choosing to ignore the muscles in my arms?_

Despite his bitterness, Raphael did take her advice and served himself up a plate of seafood. While he ate he studied the two girls, and they studied him. They both appeared to be about fifteen or sixteen. Both had strait blue hair and blue eyes. The one on the left had wave like markings on the right side of her face. The other had them on either side of both of her eyes. _Perhaps they aren't tattoos after all,_ Raphael thought.

The left one was taller and appeared stronger than the other while the one on the right was smaller and more delicate with long fingers. Both of them had small cuts and scars on their hands and the one on the right had a small scar on her chin. Raphael wondered what they did to get them. He noticed Thresh didn't have any.

"… Most of the Tributes I get have such more manners. At least the four of you seem to have some decent table manners," his investigation of the two girls complete, Raphael turned his attention back to what she was saying. Raphael shot a look at Thresh and the kid smirked. They both then put their forks down and began eating with their fingers. The two girls shot them disgusted looks, but then they couldn't help but smile slightly and the girl on the right wiped her mouth off on her hand instead of using the napkin and the girl on the left followed her example by licking her fingers off and wiping her hands off on her pants. Elisa saw what they were doing and shot them a scowl, the only ex-positive look Raphael had seen on her face from the time he had met her.

"Well, at least you took the decency of showing up clean," Elisa sighed.

Raphael looked back at the girls and saw they were both smiling at him so he supposed he had at least gained some acceptance in their eyes. In about twenty minutes all of them were done eating. Thresh stood up and seeing as he was pretty much the only friend he had here, Raphael followed him. Thresh went back down the hall into the sitting room that Raphael had passed through before. Thresh sat down on one of the couches and Raphael joined him.

Looking at the younger boy, Raphael noticed that he looked a bit sick to his stomach. "Are you okay?" Raphael asked with concern.

Thresh nodded, although he still looked a little green. "Yes, I'll be okay. I'm just not used to eating such good food," he said.

"What do you mean?" Raphael asked.

"I have five brothers at home, and I'm the youngest so we don't usually have a lot to eat. Most of the fish we catch goes to the Capital," Thresh explained.

"That's terrible," Raphael said with anger.

Thresh shrugged. "There's nothing we can do about it. None of us want to end up like District 16- the first one."

"So what happened to District 16 anyway?" Raphael asked.

"They rebelled, and the Capital wiped them off the map."

Thresh and Raphael both turned to see the two girls standing a ways off looking at them. The taller and stronger one had obviously spoken from the way she had her arms unhappily crossed. She walked over and sat down on the other unoccupied couch without saying a word and the other girl followed her. She paused a moment before speaking again.

"District 16 was in charge of providing the Capital with nuclear weapons," she continued. "They rebelled using weapons that they had stockpiled. Within three days, District 16 didn't exist anymore."

Raphael's eyes widened in horror. "So… no one survived at all?" he asked softly. The girl shook her head. "Nope." He was silent for a moment as he thought about what he was getting himself into. These people were ruthless. There was another question he still didn't have an answer for.

"So… what's with all the burgundy?" he asked changing the subject, or so he thought.

"That used to be the color for District 16," the other girl answered pointing at a flag on the wall that Raphael hadn't noticed since it blended in with the wall so well. The flag showed a circle divided into sixteen sections that was completely shaded in with a dark grey so that the lines could be seen. The background color was burgundy. "Each of the districts have a different colored flag," she continued. "District 3's flag is blue, and only has three out of sixteen sections shaded in. Well, it did before they removed one of the sections after District 16 was destroyed. Now there's only fifteen sections on our flags."

Raphael stared at the flag with sadness. _Great, I had to bring 16 District back. No wonder those two hate me,_ Raphael thought bitterly.

"By the way, I'm Kate. She's Kyra," the taller girl said.

"Raphael," he answered.

"Forgive me for asking, but what are you?" Kate asked.

"I'm a turtle," he answered. She looked at him blankly.

"Um, kame?" he said again switching to Japanese. She shook her head. "Kappa?" he offered again, running out of options.

"I don't think we have turtles here. I've been on the sea for three years and have never seen any. We do have lion-turtles though. Never heard of just a plain turtle before now," she said.

"What's a lion-turtle?" he asked.

"They're a large animal. They _kind of_ look like you," she said studying his shell. "Only you're about as big as a newborn. And they have long tails tipped with fur and a fin and they have webbed feet with four sharply tipped claws. The males also have manes. They have sharp teeth and whiskers and narrow eyes. Once they're adults they start to gather soil and plants and grow them on their shells and lots of rare animals live there that can't be found anywhere else. Often times they save sailors that have been stranded at sea and take them back to sea on their backs. They always say how there's so much life on there and how well everything is balanced. People also say they live a very long time, but it's hard to tell because they live much longer than people do. We have one that comes by the chain of islands that we live on in our district that's about nine hundred years old."

"Nine _hundred?!_" Raphael questioned in amazement. Kate nodded.

"Yes, they live for a very long time. Whenever he comes by the islands he'll stop and tell the sailors where to find the fish, and tells us stories about how he remembers what it was like before the Capital. He used to come by a lot more before they came around," when she mentioned the part about the Capital she lowered her voice to barely a whisper and looked around in a nervous manner.

"Are you not allowed to talk about the Capital?" he asked.

She shook her head. "Nope. We talk, they hear, we better say good bye to our families fast, because we ain't gonna be seeing them again."

"That's horrible," Raphael said. "Haven't you ever thought about trying to get away?"

"All the time, but it's too risky and there's no point because they always catch the ones that run away. When they catch you they cut out your tongue and make you a servant. And if you do run away it'll make your family and everyone that they think might be involved suffer. I'd rather just stay home. Although I doubt I'll be going home again," she said sadly.

"These people are terrible," Raphael said in a hushed voice; the Night watcher inside of him starting to get a little antsy.

"The Freedom Games are horrible, but at least when I die my family gets donations from the Capital for the next year," she said bitterly. Raphael realized what she had said; WHEN she died. She had already given up. Raphael was starting to hate this more and more.

"So where did you two get those scars?" Raphael asked the girls.

"We got them fishing," Kyra answered this time. "We go out on boats when we turn twelve. Then we keep going out until we die from some horrible fishing accident or if we're lucky enough, get too old. I'm fifteen and Kate's sixteen so we've both been going out on them for a while now."

"I turned twelve just a month before the Freedom Games so I haven't been on the boats too much," Thresh said speaking for the first time in a while. "I can't throw a spear or trident because we don't learn that until we're fourteen or fifteen, but I'm hard to catch at least. I'm faster than anyone else on our island," Thresh said with perhaps a bit of pride.

"Not that it will matter much for any of us once we get into the arena," Kate said bitterly. "Districts 1 and 2 almost always win. And it looks like they'll win again this year. That one guy, Herald, he's a beast!"

"Wait, you saw the other competitors?" Raphael asked hopefully.

"Yes, of course. Everyone in Pallar is required to watch the Freedom Games. Didn't you see who was chosen?" Kate asked.

Raphael shook his head. "No. I was still in my cell," he said.

"Cell?" all three of them said simultaneously. Raphael realized that they were all staring at him.

"Yeah, I was in a cell. Somebody framed me for killing my friend," he said unhappily. "I either had to come here to compete in the games or die."

"Ouch. That's terrible," Kate said. "I knew somebody else was going to be joining in the games and that's why we were here, but I didn't realize that's why you were here."

"Surprise," Raph said with a weak smile which quickly turned into an unhappy frown.

All of them were silent for a while. Suddenly the train lurched before starting to move. Raphael was surprised that it seemed to be very quiet. It didn't seem like a normal train to him, and it felt like it was going very fast. "Elisa did say the train would get going after lunch," Kyra said. Then she looked at Raphael. "Didn't you say you hadn't seen the drawings for the tributes?" she asked him.

Raphael nodded. "Well then you'd better see them. They're all recorded so you can catch up on them," she said.

"Thank you," he said great fully.

"Okay, follow me. I'll have Elisa get it," Kyra said. Raphael stood up and followed her with his chest pounding uncontrollably. He was going to see the people he was would to have kill…..

**I decided to cut it off there because it was getting to be over 4,000 words long and I like to keep them fairly short so readers have more frequent stopping points. Plus, the next part is going to be pretty long.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hey, I'm back from vacation! :D I must admit, it wasn't the best vacation I've had. :( The worst thing that happened was that my dad nearly died. You see, we went over to my uncle Ronny's home. He lives on a cow farm out in the middle of no where in eastern Washington. Just to help you get an idea, his driveway is five miles long. They get their mail at the feed lot. So we were going to take a ride on his horses, only the horse my dad was going to ride - Apollo- was acting up. Apollo is a big horse; 1500 pounds. So my dad got on him and after a little while Apollo reared up. My dad rode him and my mom brought Apollo back down and my dad was all, "Huhuhuh, I'm John Wayne," kind'a thing, only apparently Apollo doesn't like John Wayne because he reared up again and my dad didn't expect him to do that and so either Apollo slipped on the icy ground or my dad's weight through him off balance, but either way Apollo went right over on top of my dad. He yelled out and Apollo rolled off of him. The ambulance came and got him and took him to the hospital- an hour and a half drive away. After a series of events to lengthy to get into, we discovered that my dad was okay and just had some severe bruising and had hit his head, but other than that was just fine. He was really lucky because the way Apollo had landed on him if he had just been a few inches to the left the saddle horn would have gone straight through my dad's chest and he probably would have died from internal bleeding. One of my relatives knows someone who had a horse go over on top of them and it broke their pelvis and they had to be in a body cast from the waist down for six months. I guess my dad was lucky after all. Anyway, enough about me, here's the next chapter. :D**

Unfortunately, Raphael got a bit side tracked. Thresh engaged him a game of catch, before bugging him into playing hide and seek, before finally badgering him into playing a game of samu; a game in Pallor which was very similar to twenty questions. Finally though, Raphael managed to get away from him.

For the next four hours after that, Raphael watched the recordings of the drawings and studied up on Pallar. He knew there were sixty-four tributes including himself and the tributes that had been shifted to District 16. Raphael knew it would be pointless trying to remember all sixty of them so he just took note of the ones that looked dangerous.

Elisa had also cheerfully provided him with a book about Pallar and its districts so he could guess as to what skills the tributes would have. District 1 produced gemstones and District 2 produced gold and glass so they were close to the Capital, and were better treated than the others, and were the wealthiest districts. Kyra told him that these were where Career Tributes came from; kids who were trained their whole eligible lives training for the games. These were the most dangerous ones and often won the Freedom Games.

Then District 3 was in a chain of large islands close to the shore and produced seafood. They were taught how to fish with tridents with spears when they were about fourteen, although they went out on the boats after they turned twelve. Equipment was always breaking on boats so they were very conservative, and also could make baskets, mats, and other such things out of grasses and seaweeds of various kinds.

District 4 produced fabric and clothing so tributes from this district were typically very good with their hands. Many past tributes had proven this by making traps and snares to kill their opponents. Raphael made careful note to watch where he stepped once he got out there.

District 5 made breads as well as other products and grew grain, wheat, and food product of that kind so just about the only potential weapons they used on a regular basis were butter knives and scythes. However, they were very good at identifying plants.

District 6 dealt with making electronics so they weren't very advanced in physical fighting, but they were very clever and could kill easily if they were underestimated. They were just as good with their hands as District 4 and they were good with making things so they could be potentially dangerous. Fortunately there was rarely technology of any kind in the games so their strong point was at least hindered by this.

District 7 raised meat animals and dairy animals as well as butchered them so they were experience with knives and the like. They weren't phased too much by blood and death so they typically had no problem killing in the arena. Being butchers and hunters District 7 competitors could provide themselves with their own food once out in the arena.

District 8 grew vegetables. Being around plants so much they could easily indentify and survive out in the arena off the fruit of the land. Not having much skill with weapons they tended to let all the other tributes kill each other off before they really came out.

District 9 produced fruit. The tributes from this district grew up climbing almost as soon as they could walk so they typically took to the trees and stuck to aerial attacks. They could probably also identify plenty of plants, Raphael guessed.

District 10 was in a heavily forested area so they produced the lumber for buildings and other things. They could use axes, knives, and saws with ease so Raphael guessed that he'd have to keep an eye on the District 10 competitors.

District 11 mined and brought up heavy metals and so they led typically short, strong lives. District 11 also got a lot of winners so they were definitely ones to watch out for.

District 12 made weapons and tools. From his reading Raphael discovered that this district typically had very tight security. Being around weapons so much they also had many champions and could use the weapons they created quite well. Out in the arena they could also make their own weapons with relative ease.

District 13 was located along a deep and wide river so they focused on river fishing- capturing fish and other creatures that couldn't be found in the ocean. They made their own nets so Raphael guessed they could also make traps with ease as well. Not to mention using spears and knives.

District 14 had originally produced only chemicals, but after District 16 was destroyed they also began to produce nuclear weapons. This being the case the Capital was very strict in this district and security was very high. They were cunning people who made use of their intelligence in the arena.

And finally, District 15 was a district of coal mining. From his reading he discovered they had a lowest games winning of all of the districts. Since the Capital had taken over 400 years before District 15 had only won 5 times, as opposed to District 1 with the highest amount of wins with 110. The reason for this was because although they built up strength and learned how to use a pick ax in the mines it wasn't until they were 18, by which time only a small amount of the eligible tributes for District 15 had a chance of getting chosen with mining skills.

Watching the videos, Raphael compiled a list of fifteen tributes that looked like they would be trouble. Perhaps fifteen seemed like a lot, but considering there were sixty-four tributes perhaps it wasn't so many after all.

There were all eight of the tributes from Districts 1 and 2 of course. Then there were two tributes from District 3, two from District 11, and three from District 12. Everyone else seemed like either a moderate threat or a low threat.

He didn't count the ones from his own District 16 because they had already made an unspoken agreement of truce. Out in the arena tributes often came together in groups called packs. The Careers always did and these were referred to the Career Packs. Then they would pick off all other competitors not in the pack until they got too antsy and started killing each other off. Raphael hoped they broke up before it came to that, but at least there were safety in numbers. They'd need to rely on each other out there for survival.

Of the four from District 1 there was a thick, muscular eighteen year-old with blonde hair that looked like he could have been related to Hun. The other male competitor was tall and lean, but muscular. He had a scar on his left cheek. One of the female tributes was also tall and skinny with a face like a hawk. The other one was muscular and shorter but had a face like a seductress.

District 2 competitors looked equally fierce, one of them giving Raph a bit of a jolt for the first time he glanced at him he thought he was Casey. He grew immediate dislike to the smaller of the two female tributes because her face resembled Karai's. All eight of the Tributes from both districts stood up to the expectations of being fierce and tough competitors, at least in appearance.

One of the tributes from District 3- a twenty year old man- looked like he had had a couple bad fishing accidents in the past. He had a scar running down the right side of his face as well as scars on his arms. The girl was about fourteen and had fewer scars. She had the common blue hair of District 3, but had big brown eyes like a doe that gripped at his heart.

From District 11 came two male tributes who- much to Raphael's grief and frustration- were twins. They both stood close together after being selected on the screen; standing on the stage where the tributes chosen stood on in every district. Raphael would hate having to kill them, and honestly hoped he wouldn't have to face them.

Finally from District 12, there were two scruffy looking boys at about thirteen and fourteen each and a small girl with long midnight blue hair and equally dark eyes. Raphael guessed that she was only twelve. It wasn't that she looked formidable; it was the confident, intelligent, and vivacity that glittered in her eyes. No matter what happened, she would not go down easily.

When he finally finished watching the recordings he felt so tired, upset, depressed, and confused that all he could do was stare up at the ceiling blankly.

What had he gotten himself into? All he had wanted was to be friends with Induna, and now he was here. Deep down in his gut he knew it had to be Malacom. Who else would have murdered Induna? Raphael swore to himself that if he got out of the games alive that he would personally track him down and kill him to avenge Induna's death, and redeem the honor, dignity, and respect that Malacom had stolen from him.

Suddenly there was a knock on his door. "Come in," he said. The door opened and Thresh stepped in.

"Raphael, dinner is ready," he said.

"What? Already?" Raphael asked.

Thresh giggled at the perplexed expression on his face. "Raph, you've been in here for four hours studying."

"Four hours?!" Raphael blinked in disbelief.

"Yep. Now are you coming or not? I'm hungry," he said.

"Alright, alright, I'm coming Mik-" Raphael caught himself, "Thresh," he corrected himself quickly. Thresh looked at him strangely for a second before he walked back out and closed the door.

Raphael fell backwards onto the bed with a groan and covered his face with his hands. _Why did I just call him Mikey?_ Raphael questioned himself. Now that he thought about it, why not call him Mikey? Already the kid was growing on him like a leach... or a little brother. Then there was his laugh; high pitch and carefree- just like Mikey's. Not to mention that he talked more than a flock of seagulls squawked and screeched over possession of a discarded French fry. Anything that he could be proud of he didn't hesitate to mention or gloat about. Perhaps it was because he was feeling insecure about being in the games or just wanted to impress him and make an impression, but either way the gloating was definitely reminding him of Mikey. Raph knew that if it came down to just the two of them that there was no way he was going to be able to win. He just couldn't kill the kid. He reminded him too much of his own little brother.

Deciding to get up and go to dinner before somebody else that reminded him of someone he cared about showed up (not that there was anyone else, just speaking figuratively) he sat back up and walked to the door before leaving his room. Then he walked down to the dining room. There all the other tributes as well as Elisa were waiting. Expectedly, Elisa saw him and gave him a boisterous greeting before he took his seat next to Thresh. Just like before there was plenty of seafood, but this time it seemed there were much more large fish dishes than the smaller and more varied dishes of lunch. Thresh already had his plate piled high, Raphael noticed. _Just one more thing that makes him like Mikey_, he thought.

He was about to take a serving of a red colored fish, but Thresh stopped him. "No wait, don't try that! Eat this instead," Thresh said hastily.

"Why, what's wrong with it?" Raphael asked.

"It's a fire fish. They release certain chemicals into their bloodstream and throughout their bodies that makes their meat very spicy. Eat some of that and you'll have to chug down half a dozen glasses of calmec berry juice to ease the burn," he said.

"Ah, thanks. Any other fish I should watch out for?" he asked drawing his hand back.

"Well the bracket thorn fish is a bit bitter in my opinion," he said pointing to one of the dishes. "Other than that, go for it."

"Thanks," he said before digging in.

Just like lunch everything was delicious. Pushing back in his chair slightly, Raphael leaned back when he was done. His stomach was brimming with food and he felt good for a nice long nap. Looking to his right, Raphael was amazed to see that Thresh was still going at it. "You're still hungry?" Raphael asked in disbelief.

"Not as hungry as I was before," he replied cheerfully before taking another bite. Raphael recognized the red fish meat.

"Wait a minute, you told me NOT to eat the fire fish. Why are you eating it?" he asked.

"We eat fire fish all the time in District 3. We grow up on the stuff. It's such a common fish that there's no good in passing up any meal. You on the other hand haven't even touched a fire fish. I bet you couldn't even stand one bite of fire fish meat," Thresh declared confidently.

"Well I bet I could eat a whole serving without a sip of your berry juice," Raphael challenged.

"Hah, my grandma always said that you aren't a true member of District 3 until you eat fire fish meat. I had to drink eight glasses of calmec berry juice the first time I tried fire fish and I took a tiny bite. And I'm a native of District 3. What makes you could do any better?" Thresh retorted.

"Watch me!" Raphael declared taking a large scoop of fire fish meat and putting in on his plate. Kate looked at Kyra and quietly declared, "This is so idiotic," to which Kyra nodded in response.

Raphael then took a bite of the fire fish. As soon as the meat touched his tongue Raphael instantly regretted making his challenge. True to its name, the fire fish meat felt like fire on his tongue. Determined to stick to his challenge though, Raph chewed it quickly and swallowed. It burned all the way down. Thresh giggled before unable to hold back anymore he busted out laughing. "Your face is getting _so_ red," he said with uncontrollable laughter.

"Shut up," Raphael growled.

"Hey, you're the one who decided to eat a whole serving of fire fish meat. Better get to it, you still have a ways to go," Thresh said with a wink.

Raphael growled and took another bite of the fish which brought tears to his eyes. Then another and another. By now Kate and Kyra had added their giggling to Thresh's laughter and even Elisa who had at first sighed disapprovingly was now slowly conjuring up a smile. Why did he decide to eat a whole serving?

Finally Raphael sat back with a sharp out take of breath as he wiped his eyes and sniffed a few times. _That's one way to clear your sinuses,_ Raphael thought his nose continued to run and his eyes water. "So now where's that calmec berry juice?" Raphael asked eager to ease his throbbing tongue.

Thresh shook his head. "Nuh-uh. You said you could eat it without a single sip of calmec berry juice. You aren't getting any."

Raphael's eye twitched. "Shit," he said. Raph's displeasure only made Thresh laugh harder.

"Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm leaving just in case idiocy is contagious," Kate said as she stood up and excused herself from the table.

"Me too," Kyra chirped as she too stood up.

"You two have no sense of humor," Thresh chided at them.

"Yeah, well I wouldn't get too comfortable if I were you. Once we're out in the arena we'll see who's laughing because I'm placing my bet on it being the Careers," Kate shot back at him.

This silenced Thresh and he seemed to lose some of his vivacity. Seemingly satisfied, Kate walked out followed by Kyra who seemed to have become her shadow. Raphael watched Thresh carefully. He really seemed down after hearing that. "Hey, don't listen to her. Once we get out of there just stick with me and you won't have to worry about the Careers," Raphael said reassuringly.

Thresh looked up at him with a look of surprise. "You mean... the two of us?" he asked.

"You, me, and probably Kate and Kyra too. Haven't actually talked about it yet, but it seems like it's going to end up like that to me. And even if it doesn't just keep close to me," Raphael said.

"Thank you Raphael," Thresh said very happily and with perhaps a bit of relief and admiration as well.

Raphael smiled for a second before his mouth turned down into a thoughtful frown. "But there can only be one winner so we'll have to break up eventually. I don't want to end up having to kill you," he said.

"Me neither," Thresh agreed. Then he jumped up and out of his chair. "Come on," he urged.

"Where are we going?" Raphael asked as he obliged and stood up.

"I want to teach you some things. You know- for sticking with me like you are. No one inside of District 3 knows how to make fish hooks better than I do. I learned from my Granny Miyo before she died and she was the best ever! You might need how to make fish hooks to catch food when we get out there. I can make a fish hook out of almost anything; just like my grandma," Thresh said proudly.

"Well okay 'Master'; let's see how you do these fish hooks," Raphael said as he let the eccentric little boy led him down the hall to his room.....

**Yep, still no games. Yeah, you're probably dispointed about that. But don't worry, I will get them to them soon. :) Just out of curiosity, how did other people's Christmas/ things relating Christmas go? :)**


	11. Pallar Bio

**Well, instead of posting an actual chapter 11, I have instead decided to do a bio of sorts on Pallar. My reasons for doing so are because it was confusing for me to think up and organize the nation and if it was difficult for me- the creator- to do so, I feel it would make it easier on readers who cannot read my mind due to lack of brain reading technology in the world to understand how it works if they had a bit more information. For example, every time I have mentioned "Pallar" until this 'chapter' I have spelled it P-a-l-l-a-r, but the first three or so times I spelled it in this 'chapter' I spelled it P-a-l-l-o-r. XD Which proves that I am not perfect. So I have created the following biography of Pallar and tried to make it seem as least complicating as possible. Also, as a bonus point, if there are any confusions later on it would be easier to be able to come back to just one chapter rather than having to flip through all of them. I don't know if this is needed for any of you folks out there, but even if it isn't most people I know would like the extra info. Plus, it will touch on several instances much later on in the story, instances that have yet to be revealed ... :D**

**~ Silver Bullet 123**

**Pallar Bio**

Population: 500 million

Capital take over date: 400 years ago

Characteristics: Face markings are unique to each individual just as a zebra's or a tiger's stripes. Each of the districts have been isolated for so long that the members of each district now possess distinctly different dominant traits that typically are not found in any of the other districts. Those characteristics were one of the defining features in the colors chosen for each district's flag. They are as follows. Note that the dominant characteristics only means that the particular trait appears the most often- not that it is the only trait that appears as you have probably figured out from the tributes that were selected that I have described. And yes, as you have probably figure out already the people of Pallar are not human. A shame, I know. However, they do strongly resemble humans aside from slanted eyes, face markings, and seemingly lack of pupils.

Pallar Political System

Capital Leader: Emperor/Empress

District Leader: Mayor. The larger districts such as 7 and 8 have several different mayors that each are assigned by the Capital and are mayor over a relatively small amount of people in a region of the district.

District Security

Electric fences with metal plates along the bottom so they cannot be dug under. Some districts lack a lot of security, such as District 15, where the electric fence is only on for a few hours every day and there are no metal plates. The Capital figures that they're such a small district they're not a threat. There is also a security force in each district. In the larger districts there are cameras and armed guards along the fences with guns.

The Capital

Flag: Since it is the authority of Pallar, its flag is very different. Instead of the typical 16 sliced circle of the districts it has the outline of a star and 16 (now 15) different colored rectangles behind the star.

Product: ... Absolute power? :/ Receives products from all districts though.

Population: Considering themselves above the districts, the political leaders of the Capital do not combine the Capital's population with the districts. Their population is 500,000.

Dominant Characteristics: There are none. They have characteristics of all kinds.

Technology: The Capital has all of the best technology while pretty much all of the districts- with the exception of District 6- have none. This is why although Districts 8 and 9 have over double the Capital's population they do not dare oppose it in a revolt. The Capital is well prepared for an up rise and will not hesitate to kill all as it clearly showed by destroying District 16.

Others: The people of the Capital live in highly better living conditions than the districts do. While many members of the districts have search desperately for food and resort to illegal hunting, the people of the Capital eat like kings and queens every day. To say the least, this angers the districts VERY much, especially considering the food the Capital eats was produced and by and then taken from the districts.

The present political leader of the Capital is Emperor Sahd (sawed). Be super villain later on. Most of the day-to-day occurrences in Pallar are taken care of by 100 politicians that are simply referred to as the Council. Only important things such as revolts and such will the Emperor/Empress ever bother with.

District 1

Flag color: Silver

Product: Gem stones

Freedom Games wins: 110

Population: 70,000

Dominant Characteristics: Silvery hair, eyes, and markings on face.

District 2

Flag color: Gold

Product: God & glass

Freedom Games wins: 90

Population: 90,000

Dominant Characteristics: Blonde hair, very light blue eyes, and gold markings.

District 3

Flag color: Sea blue

Product: Seafood

Freedom Games wins: 20

Population: 125,000

Dominant Characteristics: Blue hair, eyes, and face markings.

District 4

Flag color: Purple

Product: Fabric

Freedom Games wins: 11

Population: 510,000

Dominant Characteristics: Purple hair, eyes, and face markings.

District 5

Flag color: Brown

Product: Bread; grains

Freedom Games wins: 9

Population: 400,000

Dominant Characteristics: Brown hair, eyes, and face markings.

District 6

Flag color: citrine

Product: electronics

Freedom Games wins: 12

Population: 300,000

Dominant Characteristics: Citrine hair, light brown eyes, and citrine face markings.

District 7

Flag color: Black

Product: Meat & dairy

Freedom Games wins: 21

Population: 110,000

Dominant Characteristics: Black hair, very dark eyes, and black markings.

District 8

Flag color: Orange

Product: vegetables

Freedom Games wins: 13

Population: 1,900,000

Dominant Characteristics: Orange hair, amber eyes, and orange markings.

District 9

Flag color: Forest green

Product: Fruit

Freedom Games wins: 16

Population: 1,000,000

Dominant Characteristics: Light green hair, eyes, and face markings.

District 10

Flag color: Deep Green

Product: Lumber

Freedom Games wins: 15

Population: 80,000

Dominant Characteristics: Very dark green or brown hair, eyes, and face markings.

District 11

Flag color: Aqua marine

Product: Heavy metals

Freedom Games wins: 23

Population: 60,000

Dominant Characteristics: Aqua marine hair, eyes, and face markings.

District 12

Flag color: Dark blue

Product: Weapons & tools

Freedom Games wins: 22

Population: 65,000

Dominant Characteristics: Dark blue hair, eyes, and face markings.

District 13

Flag color: Deep pink

Product: River fishing

Freedom Games wins: 15

Population: 140,000

Dominant Characteristics: Light pink hair, very pale colored eyes, and pink markings.

District 14

Flag color: Medium grey

Product: Chemicals and nuclear weapons

Freedom Games wins: 13

Population: 100,000

Dominant Characteristics: Sleek grey hair and grey eyes and face markings.

District 15

Flag color: Red

Product: Coal

Freedom Games wins: 5

Population: 50,000

Dominant Characteristics: Red hair, eyes, and face markings.

District 16 (deceased)

Flag color: Burgundy

Product: Nuclear weapons

Freedom Games wins: N/A

Population: N/A

Dominant Characteristics: N/A

**Well, there you go. :) I must admit, it was actually a nice break from all the story writing and got my thoughts organized. If this was useful for you, I'm glad to hear it. From Chapter 12 to pretty much the end of the story the Capital will pay a much more important part. That's pretty much the big reason for why I decided to post this. Oh and if I happen to think of anything later on I will edit this so I'll try to remember to mention on my chapters if I edited it. I will get to work on Chapter 12 now. ;)**


	12. Chapter 12

**I'm sorry guys that I haven't updated in a while. My teachers started hitting us full force with assignments and then I was sick for two weeks so I either didn't have the time to write or wasn't in a good enough mood to write. I certainly hope this makes up for my unintended absence. :)**

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CHAPTER 11

Raphael collapsed into bed with a drowsy sigh. With his belly full of good food and his energy reserves exhausted from Thresh and his games he really did feel good for a nice long sleep. True to his word, Thresh was brilliant with fish hooks. He was able to make them out of just about anything that Raphael challenged to using him- even one of his own [Thresh's] fingernails. Of course, the boy had had a secondary reason for doing so and as Raphael had anticipated, after showing him how to make fish hooks Thresh then forced him to play with him to the point of exhaustion.

Alone and lying in bed Raphael finally had time to think. He knew he shouldn't be befriending the kid so much. It would only make it harder to leave him behind in the games, but at the same time he couldn't help but think that Thresh should at least get to have the best time of his life before the damn political system practically sentenced him to death. It was sentencing him to death too. Raphael knew his own odds weren't very good; 1 to 63.

Plus, he didn't even know what kind of arena he'd be in. Every year the arena was different. Thresh told him about one year when it had been a desert with only one source of water- a small pond- and how all of the tributes would have to eventually come together and slaughter each other just to get water to avoid dying from dehydration.

Another year it had been similar to Antarctica. There had been no wood at all that year so nearly all of the tributes had ended up huddled together dying of hypothermia. The only reason the victor that year won was because he was the last one who still had any heat in his body. The cold cost him three of his fingers. There wasn't much fun watching a bunch of kids die from hypothermia so after that year the Freedom Games Officials had made sure there was wood. Still, Raphael hoped it wouldn't be either a cold or a hot desert. Just because he was cold blooded didn't mean he liked cold weather and extremely hot weather made him more susceptible to over-heating followed by death.

Thinking about the games and what he might find only made him anxious and being anxious only made him think about how much longer he had to wait. From what he had been able to Elisa to tell him the Freedom Games wouldn't start for two weeks!

The next fourteen days or so would be spent training in preparation for the games. Few of the tributes had any real training aside from the Careers so the Officials had put two weeks of preparation in before the games began. Technically, no one was supposed to train and prepare for the games outside of the two weeks of training, but District 1 and 2 always got away with it any way. That was one of the benefits of being close to the Capital.

Turning over restlessly once again Raphael caught a glance of the clock on the stand beside the bed. The clock read 9:37 p.m. Raphael had to blink away his surprise for a moment. He'd spent over an hour and a half obsessing over the games. Knowing that a bout of insomnia wouldn't help him any, Raphael forced all thoughts of the Capital out of his head and went to sleep...

_Raphael was in a desert. He was just wandering through the sands. The heat made it seem like the air was rippling. The sweat was dripping down his face and his throat was dry. Suddenly Thresh appeared in front of him. Raphael could see the sweat rolling down his face. He looked exhausted. Raphael tried to say his name and get his attention for he was looking down at the ground, but no sound came out. Still Thresh looked up at him and smiled before just like a light switch being turned off, the setting changed. _

_It was very dark and there was snow billowing around him. It was fiercely cold and almost immediately he couldn't feel his feet they were so cold, and he could barely move his fingers. Raphael felt so cold he just wanted to curl up and fall asleep... Just then he heard a sniffling noise; like someone crying. Looking around closely through the snow he managed to pick out a hunched over figure curled up and crying in the snow. Coming closer he caught a flicker of something orange; Mikey. _

_With a sudden surge of worry, Raphael called out his little brother's name. This time he could hear his own voice and Mikey looked up. Mikey looked at him for a few seconds before the gentle blue eyes dissolved away to yellow ones and fur sprouted all over him as a black lion humanoid replaced Raphael's brother. The lion leaped for Raphael's neck. _

_In a split second the scene changed again and he was in the Battle Nexus Tournament and it was Induna- not a black lion- leaping at his neck. Just like in the tournament he raised his sai in defense, knowing that he would disappear. He didn't. Raphael watched in horror as his sai went through Induna's chest. Induna's eyes rolled back in his head and he slumped forward. _

_Everything started spinning then and he was on the jungle floor; vines and giant trees spiraled above him. There was no sound. Suddenly he heard a tree branch snap behind him. Turning quickly he saw a flash of light blue duck behind a tree. "Leo?" he called wearily. There was no response. Cautiously he came closer before quickly coming around the tree. No one was there. _

_A flicker of motion out of the corner of his eye made him turn his head just as a shower of shuriken came down on him. Raphael dropped flat on the ground to avoid getting hit. He then rolled to his feet and faced his adversary with sais drawn and teeth bared. When he saw who it was he froze. It was Leo._

_"Leo what are you doing?!" he shouted at his brother. Leo just looked at him and smiled sadistically._

_"You killed him. Now you have to pay," he said. "I didn't kill Induna!" Raphael objected. "You killed him. Now you have to pay," Leo repeated, and the same distrustful and angry look showed on his face that Raphael had seen before._

_Leonardo leaped at him with his swords glinting in the faint light. Raphael raised his sais just in time to block Leo's attack. He pushed forward to make Leo move away before he stepped back several steps. "Leo stop this. Please," Raph begged. His brother didn't listen and slashed at him with his swords. Raphael barely dodged Leo's first attack and didn't dodge fast enough to avoid his second. His sword slashed his arm open. Raphael cried out in pain. _

_"Leo stop!" Raphael shouted. It was no use. Leo just kept on attacking. Raphael didn't like to run. Running wasn't in his nature. It was a sign of weakness. But this time he didn't care if he would have to run a mile, he wasn't going to fight Leo. This was a crazy dream, he could feel it. So he ran. Leo followed. He chased as Raphael pushed through curtains of vines, leaped over fallen trees, and darted to his left and right to avoid running into trees. _

_You can only run so far before one of three things happens; 1. You get tired and must stop. 2. If you run really far, you'll end up in the exact same spot that you were in due to the roundness of the Earth. 3. Lastly, you will reach a dead end. Raphael reached a dead end. _

_The trees gave way and Raphael skid to a stop as a cliff with a sudden drop came before him. Turning around he was face to face with Leo. "Leo, please stop. I don't want to hurt you," Raphael pleaded desperately. _

_"It's too late for that. You should have thought about that before you dishonored yourself and our family," Leo said scornfully. Raphael didn't have time to respond because Leo was once again on the assault. Raph literally ducked and parried to avoid being hit by Leo's fatally accurate blows. He threw one of his sais at Leo and Leo hit it away with his sword before he kicked Raphael in the chest._

_When he landed his head was about three feet away from the edge. His head hit the hard ground and he saw stars. Blinking his eyes to see straight again, Raphael saw Leo on his way to jumping on top of him with his sword on a direct course to his heart. Raphael didn't think, he acted on instinct. He brought his legs up and flipped Leo over him. It wasn't until after he did it that he realized he had just flipped Leo over the cliff. "Leo!" Raphael screamed as he got to his feet and quickly went and looked over the edge of the cliff. His timing was bad, and he was just in time to see Leo hit the bottom._

Raphael woke up with a shout as he sat bolt upright covered with sweat like rain. The sheets were tangled around his legs like a boa constrictor trying to suffocate its prey and he practically dragged half the covers with him on his trip to the bathroom before he untangled his legs. He just made it to the toilet and got the lid up before he vomited violently. Raph didn't stop until after his entire dinner was gone.

He stayed there for several minutes panting before he shakily stood up. Flushing the toilet he went over to the sink and took the cup sitting on the side of the sink and rinsed his mouth out. Then he wiped the sweat off his face with the back of his hand. Raphael stared at his own reflection in the mirror while his heart rate slowly returned to normal. Even though he tried not to, Raphael couldn't stop thinking about what he had seen in his dream. This entire Freedom Games thing was really messing his head up. One thing he was sure of; if the games didn't kill him, he'd die of insanity...

Raphael sat absentmindedly pushing the food on his plate around with his fork as Thresh continued chattering away beside him. Occasionally he'd nod or make a brief comment, but mostly he remained silent. Eventually Thresh noticed his lack of enthusiasm. "What's wrong, Raphael?" Thresh asked with deep concern.

"What? Oh, nothing, I just didn't sleep too well last night," Raphael answered.

"Why? Bad dreams?" he asked.

"Yeah," Raphael answered.

"Like what?"

"Look, I don't really want to talk about it," Raphael said in a dismissive tone.

Thresh watched him for a few seconds before Elisa cleared her throat. All four of them turned to look at her. Raphael had to admit; the attempt she was making to look very professional and business like was only making her look more ridiculous than usual. Who hired these people anyway?

"Well, today we will be arriving at the Capital in approximately two to three hours," Elisa said- her teeth flashing annoyingly bright to Raphael's tired eyes.

"Once there you will meet your mentor for the games who _might_ help you… Though I wouldn't hold your breath," she muttered as an afterthought.

"Why? Who's our mentor?" Kate asked.

"The same as it is every year," Elisa answered with sniff.

All three of the District 3 locals groaned.

"What? Who is it?" Raphael asked.

"Jarvis Anselm is our mentor," Kate said with a sigh.

"What's wrong with Jarvis Anselm?" Raphael asked.

"Aside from the fact that every time I've ever seen him he's been either passed out or seriously drunk, nothing at all," Kate said sarcastically.

"Seriously, that man has embarrassed me for the past twelve years in a row. He's a disgrace," Elisa said, the only bad thing he had heard her say.

"Not to mention he just drinks the whole time. Meanwhile the tributes he's supposed to be training just flounder around without any advice. Ever since he won thirty years ago, we haven't won once," Kyra added.

"Yes, well, anyway, we will be arriving at the Capital later today so get ready. Perhaps this is the year that District 3 will finally come through for m- eh, well, let's just leave it at that," Elisa finished quickly. Raphael gritted his teeth as he resisted saying something nasty to her. Their lives were on the line and she was thinking about _her _reputation?

"Yeah, sure, whatever, we'll all be killed by the Careers anyway," Kate said quickly and dismissively.

_Not if I can help it,_ Raphael thought defiantly…

"Raph, Raph, we're here!" Thresh shouted at him as he came into his room, which interrupted Raphael from the book he was reading.

"What?" Raphael said dumbly.

"Yeah, we're here. Come on!" Thresh said hurriedly. "Elisa is getting excitable."

"Whenever is she not?" Raphael muttered as he followed Thresh out.

Elisa, Kate, and Kyra were all sitting in the rest room from before while waiting for the train to stop and Raphael and Thresh to arrive.

"It's about time you decided to show up," Elisa said hurriedly and distractedly. "The train stops in two minutes and we'll be getting off on District 16's floor to have lunch before heading to the Training Center. You'll all meet the other tributes and their mentors there as well as Jarvis. Oh and Raphael… Smile. You look too tense."

_Gee, I wonder why,_ Raphael thought.

Raphael and Thresh sat down and waited. Eventually, Raphael felt the train slow before finally stopping. "Okay, let's go!" Elisa said cheerfully. The four of them got up and followed her to the door of the train, which slid open when she pressed a code into the pad beside it. Raphael followed her out followed closely by Thresh, Kate, and Kyra.

It took his eyes a few seconds to adjust to the bright lights right outside. Raphael had to look around for a second to realize where he was. They were underground. Apparently the train went underground like a subway. The metallic floor felt cold under his feet, and it vibrated slightly as though with electricity. There were bright lights over head and Raphael could see numerous Capital guards at their designated posts. There were two elevators on the other side of the fairly narrow platform. Already this place made him feel like a prisoner. In a sense, he was.

"Come on we have to hurry up. We don't want to waste any time," Elisa said cheerfully.

_We've got two weeks. What's the rush?_Raphael thought with extreme irritancy. He calmly counted to five and tried to get all bad thoughts about Elisa out of his head. He failed.

Elisa led them over to the elevators and they got on the right one. "Once you get up to the Training Center don't hesitate to warm up to the other tributes. Getting into a pack will definitely benefit you out there. Plus, it definitely makes it much more interesting. And-"

"Look, we've already decided that the four of us will be a pack together so thanks, but no thanks," Raphael interrupted as he finally let go of some restraint. Kate and Kyra looked at him with some surprise, but they certainly didn't look angry. They actually looked a bit relieved… even though they hadn't really discussed that.

"Oh, I see," Elisa said with some disappointment. "Oh well, another pack should make it interesting. Just stick together and you'll do great."

_Whose side are you on?_ Raphael wondered angrily. _Probably whichever side gives her more publicity. _

Then the elevator doors slid open. "This is the floor for District 16. We're just in time for lunch. You'll also meet Jarvis here," she said with a little less enthusiasm. "Once you're done, we'll head up to the Training Center." _What's with the "we"? You aren't going to be doing any of the work…or possibly be killed._

Following her down the hall, Raphael found that it opened up into a dining room. Elisa had been correct when she said that they were just in time for lunch because the table was set already, although there was no one seated yet. "It looks like Jarvis hasn't arrived yet," Elisa stated. "Oh well. We might as well get seated."

She had just said this when a man with a bottle and a slightly staggering stride came into the room from the entrance on the other side of the room. "Well, it was good while it lasted," Elisa muttered. Raphael took it that this man was Jarvis.

Raphael had to admit that he was NOT impressed by the man that was supposed to be his "sensei". Jarvis had short blue hair that was so dark it was almost black that was fading away to grey and a short, bristly beard that was more grey than blue. He wasn't short, but he wasn't tall either. He was pretty thin and he had a narrow face. His eyes were grey, and had a sort of glazed over look that definitely suggested that he had been drunk for at least a few hours now.

"Jarvis, what a surprise," Elisa said with making an effort to be cheerful as she put on a fake smile.

"Don't fool yourself Elisa. Ya' know you're just as happy to see me as I am to see you," he said scornfully. "And I'm not too happy to see you," he added."

Elisa, being highly offended - although Raphael had no idea how anyone could be offended dressed like she was- straightened to her full height (a mere three inches shorter than Jarvis's chin), brought her face close to his and looked him in the eye. "I'll have you know that I am VERY happy to see you (although her words were quite strained) because I know that this year I have a group that will not crumble under solid indifference and unflattering manners and style and teaching methods. By the way, I can't help but ask which bottle you're on," Elisa said with as much dignity as someone wearing ridiculous heals and clothes to match could muster.

Jarvis- completely unfazed by her attempt to look dignified and professional- calmly replied, "Third. Want a cup?"

Raphael would have fallen over on the ground laughing until his sides hurt at the expression on her face in response to this had it been an appropriate time to do so. Judging from the looks on the faces of his companions, they would have gladly done so as well.

In defeat, Elisa sighed before taking a seat at the table. Jarvis gave a satisfied smirk before he took a seat across from her (although in his drunken state it was more like he plopped into the chair). Raphael took the chance and sat next to Jarvis, eager to find out if there was anything worthwhile that he could get out of this man that could save him out in the games. Thresh took the seat next to Raph's left and Kate and Kyra sat beside Elisa.

Raphael served himself and watched Jarvis for a few minutes before he said anything. The man seemed more interested in drinking than in the food.

"So what do you have planned for our training?"

"Didn't plan anything."

"Why not?"

"Didn't feel like it."

"Why's that?"

"That's my business."

"You didn't plan out training that could save my life. That makes it my business too."

"You're nosy kid."

"Heck yes I'm nosy and I'm eighteen so I'm not exactly kid."

"Well I'm fifty-six so I'm saying shut up kid."

"I don't care what you say as long you help me win the games."

"Sorry, can't help you." Jarvis then reached for a new bottle of booze. Noisily and quickly Raphael pushed back his chair, stood up, picked up the knife that had been by his plate, and slammed it into the shirt sleeve of the arm that had been reaching for the alcoholic beverage.

Then Raphael leaned forward and whispered dangerously the following: "I have been framed for the murder of one of my friends. I have three brothers and a father waiting at home for me that depend on me and are encouraging me to get out of here alive. The only reason I'm here in the first place is because if I hadn't had come here I would have been executed and wouldn't have had even a slim chance of survival like I do here. Something you know might be able to help me with my slim chance of survival and in my desperate situation I will not hesitate in threatening your life if that's what it takes to make you talk. Now what will it be?"

This was followed up by a glaring contest between Jarvis and Raphael for the next several seconds with four pairs of wide eyes as spectators. Then all of the sudden Jarvis's face broke out into a smile and he burst out laughing. With surprise and puzzlement Raphael pulled back from the man with a wrinkle of his nose from the smell of alcohol on his breath.

When Jarvis got a hold of himself he turned to Elisa while wiping tears of laughter out of his eyes and said, "Well I'll be. It looks like you actually got some tributes with spunk this year. Good work." Elisa just looked at him like he was nuts.

Then Jarvis turned his attention back to Raphael. "I've been waiting for a long time to get a tribute with some spark like you to come along. Glad I finally got my wish."

"So you _are _training us?" Raphael questioned. Jarvis nodded. Raphael's lips twitched into a smile and he sat back down in his chair. "Alright, let's get to it then. What are you going to be teaching us?"

"I have a few points of interest actually. My first one being-" Jarvis slowly pulled the knife out of his shirt sleeve with his free arm and pointed it at Raphael- "You."

"Me?" Raphael asked with surprise.

"Yes you."

"Why?"

"Because I get the feeling that this isn't the first time that you've used a knife before is it?"

Raphael shook his head. "No, it's not."

Jarvis nodded. "Have you had any kind of training?"

"Yes."

"For how long?"

"About eighteen years."

"What were you training?"

"Silence and secrecy mainly in the first years, but then my father started teaching my brothers and I with weapons."

"Anything in particular?"

"Sais."

"Good, good, those are a nice throwing weapon. They sure can pin a man down. First-hand experience speaking here," Jarvis said with a nod. "Any other weapons that you are particularly good at?"

Raphael thought about it for a moment. Splinter had trained him and his brothers with lots of weapons… although if he had to choose the three he was best at he'd say sais (duh), bo and arrows, and knives (in particular throwing them) were his strongest points. His skill with the two latter ones were no doubt attributed with the similarities they shared with sais and throwing them.

"Probably bow and arrows and knives. Maybe swords too," Raphael answered. "Although I've trained with a lot of others and I can fight without them pretty well."

"Show me what you can do with this," Jarvis said as held up the knife in front of his face before handing it to Raphael.

"Do you want me to throw it at something?" Raphael asked. Jarvis nodded. Raphael looked around the room for something to hit. His attention was caught by a picture on the wall of a lion-like creature laying on a rock in a savanna-like terrain. A sun had been painted just above the lion creature's head. Raphael didn't exactly expect to be able to hit such a small target but he certainly like the idea of showing off something to this guy. He threw the knife. Much to his surprise and everyone at the table's surprise the knife hit the sun dead center. _Damn, I am GOOD._

Jarvis looked at the knife sticking out of the picture with eyebrows raised in surprise as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Very… very good. Much better than I expected. When people tell me they're good at throwing knives they're typically only slightly above average. I think you just might actually have a talent for this kind of thing."

Even though Raphael wasn't quite sure he liked this man yet he still got an uprising feeling in his chest that felt like pride. Jarvis then cleared his throat before continuing.

"Well, as much as I'd just love for you to be able to show off throwing knives all day, I'm going to make it a strict rule that you don't show off in the training room. Save your skills for the solitary training," Jarvis said.

"Wait, why?" Raphael said with confusion.

"If you go out there with all of those tributes- especially the Careers- and show them what you just showed me you'll be target number one out in the field. I've seen kids do that before; they're usually the first to be picked off. Just lay low out there. Focus on the areas that you aren't good at. Avoid being too flashy. Once you're in solitary training you'll be able to show off to the Games Officials all you want without any worries," Jarvis explained. Raphael nodded in response. That made sense… except for…

"What exactly will the Games Officials be doing in solitary training?" Raphael asked.

"They'll be scoring you," Jarvis answered.  
"Scoring?"

"Yes. The Officials will score each tribute based on their skills or lack thereof. Then the scores will be announced to Pallar so the wealthy will know who to sponsor and the gamblers will know who to bet on. They score from 0 to 15- although this year it will be 0 to 16- and generally the higher you score the more sponsors you'll get, but the more threats you'll have in the games. The sponsors provide money that can be used to buy you items that you need out in the games. Keep in mind though that the score doesn't necessarily determine who will win. One year the champion got only a three in his solitary training. The low score actually did him well in the games; he didn't have as many tributes after him although due to his low score he didn't have any sponsors either. A sponsor's item could save your life in some of those arenas."

"Alright, I think I've got it. Lay low and build upon weak skills. So what else?" Raphael asked eagerly.

"Avoid the Careers and joining them. They become cannibalistic once the numbers out there get low, and they won't hesitate to kill you in your sleep."

"Okay, I think I can do that," Raphael said with a nod. "Anything else?"

"Not for now. I'll see how you do in training and then maybe we'll talk some more," Jarvis said.

Raphael nodded before he went back to his meal. The fish was cold, but he was happy for the first time in a long while.

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**Well I hope you guys all enjoyed it :). Please, please, please reply. When you've been sick for two weeks like I've been a little bit of encouragement is like an energy boost... well, at least for me it is ^^; **


	13. Chapter 13

**Hey everybody, sorry I haven't been around lately. Things have been a little tight on the home front and I haven't really been in the mood for writing. Turns out my dad no longer loves my mom and is divorcing her.... So yeah, like I said, I haven't really been in a good writing mood lately. Despite my problems, I hope you enjoy this. I've been working on this for quite a long time today (and even as I'm sitting here behind my computer the clock says 10:11 P.M.) So I hope you all really like this. **

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When Raphael finished lunch earlier than the others he waited for them to finish before Elisa led him and his three friends back to the elevator. Raphael didn't know what Jarvis was going to do.

She pushed the buttons for floor ten. When the elevator stopped and the door opened Raphael was surprised to see a hallway that looked just like the one that had led to the dining area. When Raphael thought about it however, some of his surprise disappeared. Having all the hallways look exactly the same made it very difficult to escape or even make an attempt. Raphael figured that there were multiple elevators. Raphael had no idea how deep this place was or how many floors there were since there was only a pad with 0 through 9 on it in the elevator. He had also seen Elisa type in some kind of code before entering the floor number. No doubt this was to make any kind of escape impossible. Raphael was discovering that these people could be very weary.

Elisa stepped into the hallway and the four of them followed. She turned several corners before the hallway opened up into a very large room. Raphael had to blink away his surprise. The room was definitely the training room. The room was divided into four sections by a red velvet carpet that crossed in the center of the room that stopped at each of the four entrances to the room.

In the left corner there were the following four sections: Archery, javelin throwing, swords, and other weapons.

Then the upper right corner there was: Shelter, knots, medical, and survival 101.

In the lower left corner there was: animals, hunting, traps, and plants.

Finally, in the lower right corner there was: knife throwing, hand-to-hand combat, weight lifting, and climbing. In the climbing section there was an actual tree and it was quite large. Raphael didn't have a clue how they got it to grow in such a small space, but somehow they did.

Along all four walls there were stands behind a window of glass as well as an entrance on each wall. In the stands there were numerous people. Many of them were dressed in crisp white suits and had clipboards, some of which were taking notes on the other sixty tributes that were already in the room. Raphael guessed that these were the Officials. There were also people dressed more casually. Raphael assumed these were the sponsors and anyone else who was rich enough or had enough publicity to get this close to the tributes.

"Alright, off you go," Elisa said cheerfully... and loudly. Her high pitch + loud voice combo caused several of the tributes to glance in their direction. Raphael immediately sensed an increased hostility enter the air as the Careers caught sight of them and narrowed their eyes in suspicion. He noticed that their eyes seemed to linger on him the most no doubt because he was the only tribute who was a turtle. He suddenly began feeling a little self conscious.

Tentatively, Raphael walked out into the room edging quickly over to the knot section which was vacant and also the closest. The three followed him restlessly. At all of the stations there were two people waiting to assist. Judging from the way the two at the knot station were so smiley and talkative, Raphael guessed that they didn't get too many hits at this station. Glancing out of the corners of his eyes, Raphael saw that the others had looked away, and he felt a little better.

Some of the knots they showed him he already knew from Splinter's teachings, but some of the others he had never done before. Some of them seemed impossibly difficult to do. He noticed that Thresh, Kate, and Kyra seemed to have a much easier time at them then he did. Having only three fingers didn't help much either. After about an hour he had at least managed to get the hang of four or five of them at least. "I'd take it knots aren't your specialty," Kate said with a smirk as she watched him slowly and clumsily make a sailor's knot.

"No, they aren't," Raphael admitted with a chuckle as he finished a slightly off sided knot.

"Come on, let's go over there," Thresh said motioning with his head to the making shelter station.

"Alright fine," Raphael said. "I'm gonna suck at this too," he muttered under his breath.

As he self predicted Raphael did quite frankly suck at making shelter. The main form of shelter making followed District 3's style, so of course his three friends knew exactly what they were doing. District 3's shelter making style consisted mainly of weaving certain leaves and grasses together into mats, which could be put together to make bigger ones and then supported by tree limbs or surrounding boulders could act as a completely waterproof roof. In the same manner baskets could also be weaved. "I guess weaving just isn't your thing, is it Raphael?" Kate teased him and the three of them laughed while he growled, gritted his teeth, bunch up his brow in concentration and frustration, and completely fell over his own fingers simultaneously.

"No it is not," Raphael said with a sigh as he gave up on making a matt. With that he stood up from his cross legged position on the ground. "Come on, let's go to the next one," he said. The other three all smirked at each other and followed him as he went over to survival 101. This was quite a bit easier for Raphael. Here it simply told him what good shelters were rather than how to make them. It also told them how to make fire and prepare meals from scratch. All of them had fairly good personal experiences in this area so they had no problems there.

The next section they went to was medical.

Medical was fairly challenging for him. Donny had always been the doctor. Since there would not be any real medical equipment in the Freedom Games, it was in the best interest of all of the tributes if they learned how to treat their own injuries with the resources available. There were herbs which could be used to ease pain and help prevent infection. There were also fibers in animal muscles as well as hair and gut that could serve as either a bandage or thread for sewing up a wound. Although Raphael still wasn't exactly thrilled about having to gut a rabbit as part of his training.

Satisfied with their skill in this area, they moved onto climbing. Finally Raphael was starting to get into his comfort zone. There was another tribute there as well; a scrawny one who he was sure was from District 10. The young boy saw them coming and quickly moved out of their way.

Now that he could get a better look at the tree, Raphael had to admit he was _very_ impressed. The tree was at least thirty feet tall! There was dark soil surrounding the trunk that probably had the highest quality fertilizer available in it.

Its trunk was wide and its branches long and firm. The bark was fairly smooth and the leaves resembled maple leaves. Raphael walked forward and got ready to climb it.

"Are you really going to try and climb it, Raph?" Thresh asked him.

"Yeah. Why?" Raphael asked him.

"Doesn't it seem a little… dangerous? I mean, what if you fall?" Thresh answered looking up at the tree.

"No," Raphael said bluntly.

"Oh," Thresh said looking away and blushing. Then Raphael understood what he was getting at.

"You've never climbed a tree before," Raphael stated. Thresh blushed deeper and nodded.

"Why didn't you just say so? Come on, I'll teach you," Raphael said and without even waiting for an answer he grabbed Thresh by the arm and pulled him towards the tree.

"And here I though that's what those two were here for. I guess I had this figured out all wrong," Kate said with a sarcastic sigh as she motioned to the two climbing assistants. Kyra shrugged and tried to act like she didn't care, but she couldn't help but smile as she watched Raphael teach the uncertain Thresh how to climb.

"I can't believe you've never climbed a tree before," Raphael said as he looked for a good foot hold in the tree bark.

"We don't have many trees in District 3," Thresh said. "All of our trees end up being cut down for firewood, building houses, or repairing boats."

"Oh, that's right, you guys do all the ocean fishing in Pallar," Raphael mused. Then he looked over at Kate and Kyra.

"So have you two ever climbed before?" Raphael asked them. They both shook their heads.

"The closest I've ever come to climbing a tree is the rock cliff that ran along one side of my village," the soft spoken Kyra said. "When we were little, my sister and I would climb it to get sea hopper eggs." Raphael took it that sea hoppers were like some kind of seagull.

"Then you guys had better learn," Raphael said with a confident smile.

"And we will- without your help; those two assistants are looking a little bored," Kate said haughtily as she walked over to them.

Kyra looked at Kate then over at Raphael in indecision.

"I could teach you too," Raphael offered. Kyra glanced back at Kate before she shook her head.

"That's okay. Thank you though," Kyra said with a cute smile before she turned and walked over to where Kate was busy talking with one of the assistants.

"Suit yourself," Raphael said with a sigh. Then an idea made him smirk. He waited until he was sure Kate was looking at the tree before faster than a tree gecko he scrambled up the side of the tree and flipped onto a branch and coolly leaned back against the trunk of the tree like nothing had happened.

First Kate looked a little stunned at his speed, and then she shot him a glare before flipping her head around and refused to look at him again. Kyra looked very impressed and perhaps a little embarrassed for turning down his offer.

"Still sure you don't want me teach you, hun?" Raphael teased before laughing. Kyra blushed- her embarrassment more evident this time.

"Wow Raph, you're like part lizard or something," Thresh said with amazement.

"Thanks." Raphael flipped down and landed firmly on his feet. "Your turn."

Thresh suddenly turned hesitant again. "Uh, I really don't think I can climb that fast."

"Course you can't. That's why you practice," Raphael answered.

"Okay, if you say so," although Thresh still didn't seem quite convinced. Thresh listened carefully as Raphael led him through the steps of tree climbing. Raphael repeated them again just to make sure he remembered them. Then, very slowly, Thresh started to learn how to climb. It was at least four or five minutes before he even got to the first branch, but at least he hadn't stumbled at all.

"So… how was that?" Thresh asked looking down at Raphael who was still on the ground.

"Good. Now come back down," Raphael said. Thresh paled. "Um… I'll try."

He was definitely more graceful going up then coming back down and he nearly fell twice. By the time Thresh got down to the ground his arms were shaking from the exertion of having to hold onto the tree for so long.

"Maybe we should come back to this later," Raphael suggested. Thresh nodded vigorously as he panted. Raphael glanced over at the two girls. "Aren't you two going to try it?" Raphael asked them.

"No thanks. Just watching him was enough to make me exhausted," Kate said disinterestedly as breezed past him to the next section. Apparently she hadn't forgiven him yet for showing off and embarrassing her. _Jeez, why do girls have to hold grudges? _Raphael thought with a scowl.

His frustration was quickly forgotten as they got to the next station; hand-to-hand combat.

"This'll be fun," Raphael muttered to himself under his breath. There were two male assistants at the combat station. They both were tall and had nice builds. They actually somewhat reminded Raphael of Foot ninjas, which certainly made him all the more eager to take them on. The training part was simple; fight with the instructor as they taught you techniques and you practiced the moves on them.

Raphael got ready to spar with one of the assistants. The assistant started to tell him a few techniques, but Raphael cut him off. "Let's just skip that and get to fighting," Raphael said eagerly. The assistant gave a bored shrug, but got into a fighting stance.

Raphael did the same and paused a moment before leaping at the man. The fight lasted no more than five seconds. After being flipped to the ground and having the wind knocked out of his lungs, the man slowly got back up.

"I guess that's what I get for taking it easy on you," he said. "Most of the kids that come in here can hardly do a thing. Glad to know I don't have to hold back with you." Then he got back into a fighting stance. "Come on, let's go again," he said quite a bit more alive now. Raphael smiled at the prospect of another round and got ready.

Round two was a bit more event-full. Although the man had appeared bored and half asleep before the first round, he had quickly livened up after Raphael's rough awakening and now eyed him with more caution and careful scrutiny.

Deciding to take a go at it, Raphael made the first move. The man dodged his first punch before lashing out with a quick kick at Raphael's knee. Raphael quickly stepped back before performing a roundhouse kick. The man got hit in the abdomen, but quickly recovered by rolling backwards several times before regaining his footing.

Aware of what he could do now, the man circled him wearily; constantly shifting his center of gravity to make it difficult for Raphael to catch his leg with his foot and trip him.

Raphael saw this and smirked. In an instant he dropped to the ground and swept with his right leg in an effort to knock the man off his feet.

He was too quick, however, and jumped back before swinging his body around and kicking at the same time before spinning around twice more, kicking each time. His first two kicks Raphael managed to block, but the third broke through his defense and Raphael stumbled backwards several feet. _This guy's good,_ Raphael thought. _Better than a Foot ninja._

Raphael was just starting to plan a counterattack when Thresh whispered behind him. "Raph, I think you should stop fighting. They're watching you," Thresh whispered anxiously.

Raphael wasn't quite sure what he meant so he paused to look around. Thresh was right, they _were _watching him. Several of the Careers as well as some of the Officials and spectators were watching him with great interest. _Too much interest_, Raphael thought.

Jarvis had told him to lay low and avoid getting attention drawn to himself and now he had gone and almost gotten caught for something as stupid as a sparring match. "Thanks Thresh," Raphael whispered back.

The man- seeing Raphael's dilemma- gave him an understanding smile. Raphael nodded in thanks and they continued sparring for a few minutes before Raphael let the man beat him. As he pulled Raphael to his feet, he winked and smiled. Raphael could tell that he knew Raph could do a lot better and somehow that made him feel better about not being able to go all out. Looking around he also noticed that the attention was no longer on him and that made him feel even better.

Finished sparring for the moment, Raphael turned to watch his companions. All three of them were facing off with the other assistant who was quickly joined by the man Raphael had just fought.

To Raphael, Thresh's stance seemed a little wobbly. However, when the other assistant kicked at him he leaped back with such speed that even the assistant himself seemed surprised.

Both Kate and Kyra appeared to have strong stances though Kyra crouched down more he noticed. _Perhaps that's part of her fighting style, _Raphael mused. His theory was proven correct when the man punched at her and she dropped down low and ducked at the same time before striking the inside of his knee with the heel of her right hand- setting him off balance- before rising up again, leaning back on her other leg slightly, before leaping up and kicking him with the leg that had been farther forward. She landed gracefully on the balls of her feet as the man went stumbling.

Raphael had to admit; she reminded him of a cat. Cat… Klunk. It was only then that Raphael remembered the little hairball. He had never been Klunk biggest fan like Mikey, but he had liked her. Sure she would jump up onto his lap and flick her tail in his face when he was watching something on TV, and sure she would wake him up in the middle of the night sometimes by walking all over him and purring, but right now he wouldn't mind hearing her meow one more time.

His thoughts were interrupted by the assistant suddenly letting out a groan and dropping to his knees. It was then with a sympathetic wince Raphael realized that Kate had just kicked him- and not nearly gently enough- right in the nuts.

Kate gave a satisfied twitch of a smile and calmly dusted off her hand before nonchalantly saying, "Well, let's go."

Still too stunned to answer and not very inclined to disagree, Raphael gulped and nodded before following her. _Note to self; DON'T piss off Kate._

Kate led them on to the weight lifting section; another area where Raphael would have a hard time containing himself. He noticed that as soon as Kate arrived on the scene the male assistant began to sweat. The female assistant almost seemed amused at her performance with the combat assistant.

Deciding to take it easy, Raphael only bench pressed 90 pounds- even though it felt too light for him. The "small" amount of weight allowed him to look like he was doing something and observe the others at the same time. Kate seemed to be the strongest of the three. She was also bench pressing 90 pound and she didn't seem fatigued at all.

Watching her arm muscles contract and relax made him think about how strong her leg muscles must be which unavoidably made him think about the assistant and how he should probably make sure everything was in working order later. Despite his sympathetic thoughts, Raphael couldn't help but smirk.

After about twenty minutes or so, Kate got bored and without a word to the others moved on. Naturally Kyra also moved with her and not wanting to be left behind the boys followed.

On to knife throwing they went. Raphael had to fight down the excitement and eagerness that had risen in his chest.

There were ten targets all in various locations at different distances. There was a knife rack with many different types of knives.

Walking by it, Kate grabbed a knife and began to twirl it carelessly. Kyra stopped to examine the knives before making a selection. Thresh took the smallest one on the rack. Raphael- like Kyra- stopped to examine the knives.

Many he had seen and used before, but others he was unfamiliar with. He decided to work with these.

The first one he grabbed was big and heavy. It took him a minute to get used to the balance, but once he was comfortable with it he tried throwing it at the closest target. It hit the bulls-eye and Raphael smiled in satisfaction. He walked over and pulled the knife out of the target.

After practicing with some knives for a little while, Raphael took the time to see how the others were doing.

Thresh seemed a little shaky. His throws only seemed to hit the bulls-eye maybe one out of every four tries. Raph felt a pang of grief. He could tell Thresh was not going to be a serious competitor in any way shape or form. Perhaps the only reason he would last in the games was because he was in a pack with them, but even their protection could only last for so long into the games.

Taking his mind off of such unhappy thoughts, Raphael turned to watch Kate. Kate it seemed loved to play with big knives. She had a handful of knives in her left hand and she would pick one up with her right hand, test the balance for a moment or two, before she threw it at the target in front of her. Her aim was pretty good and she hit about eight bulls-eyes every ten throws. She could throw much faster and accurately than Thresh. The whole time she appeared to be enjoying herself for she had a smile on her face. The only time the smile diminished was when she missed, but it quickly returned.

Then he turned his attention to Kyra. In contrast, Kyra seemed to like small, light weight knives rather than long, heavy ones. She too had several of them on her left hand and was studying the targets in front of her. She took a few deep breaths before with amazing speed she rapidly grabbed each knife and threw them one after the other into six different targets for each blade. She hit each target perfectly.

Raphael's eyes widened as his mouth dropped open. "That was amazing," Raphael said to her. Kyra turned around with surprise. She had not known he was there.

"Th-that wasn't _that_ good," she said trying to sound modest.

"Are you kidding me? That was great," Raphael insisted.

"I, uh, thank you," she stammered as she blushed and looked down an embarrassed but pleased smile.

Raphael looked at her curiously for a moment as he tried to figure out what she blushing for before giving up with a smile simply concluding to himself that he would never understand women.

"Raph, can we go now?" Thresh asked.

"Hm? Sure," he said as he drew his attention away from Kyra who almost seemed disappointed at this although Raphael didn't see. Following Thresh they crossed into the next section to plants.

There the two assistants gave each of them a book of plants to study. In the book there were detailed pictures of different plants as well as a written description, if the plant was edible or poisonous, and what other plants that it might be mistaken for and the listed differences between the plants.

Raphael was surprised at how many poisonous plants were listed in the book. Nearly all of them were poisonous and only a few were edible. "Has anyone else noticed how many poisonous plants there are in this book?" Kyra asked, reading Raphael's mind.

"Yeah, there are a lot of them. I'd think they'd have listed more edible ones," Raphael agreed.

"Who cares? I'd rather them list a bunch of poisonous plants than edible ones if it keep me from dying from eating a poisonous berry," Kate said. She others nodded in agreement. She had a point.

When they were satisfied with what they had learned for the day they moved on to animals.

There were many animals that he had never seen or heard of before. Many resembled animals on Earth. For example, there was an orange furred monkey that reminded him of an orangutan. Then there was a bird that looked like a black bird except it had a strip of purple feathers on each wing and it was poisonous. Then there were frogs that looked a lot like poison dart frogs and were about as deadly. Again he was surprised at how many poisonous animals there were listed in the book.

The next section was on hunting. Raphael was a bit perplexed as to why there weren't many hunting techniques. In the next section- trap making- there were few traps. He pondered on this for a while, but finding no explanation and only receiving a shrug from the assistants he let the subject drop from his mind.

The next section they went to was one Raphael was sure Leo would have loved; swords. There were all kinds of swords here; short swords, long swords, thick swords, dual swords, just about any kind of sword.

Poking around the sword rack, Raphael even found a pair of katanas. Picking them up, Raphael was surprised at how light they felt. Leo's were heavier he remembered. Looking closely he realized that the blades sparkled slightly. _They must be made out of a different material,_ Raphael thought.

They didn't stay there for long, however, because Kate was eager to get onto the next section. Raphael wasn't surprised. The next section would be javelins so Kate would be right in her comfort zone.

As soon as they got to the javelin rack, Kate eagerly picked one up before throwing it at one of the targets without even stopping to take aim. She hit it dead center.

Examining the weapons on the rack, Raphael realized it wasn't just javelins that were there. The rack also had bo staffs as well as tridents. He had just picked a trident when he felt something blunt poke him in the shell. Turning he saw it was Kate and that she had poked him with the butt of the spear in her right hand.

"Hey Raph, want to spar?" Kate asked. Her tone seemed casual, but he could tell from the hungry look in her eyes that she was eager for him to say yes.

"Alright," Raphael said a little cautiously.

Kate just smiled and twirled her weapon as they walked over to a more open area. Then turning she took a fighting stance with her spear pointing at him. Raphael took a similar position.

Raphael knew that coming from District 3, Kate was right at home using spears and similar weapons unlike Raph who was unaccustomed to using them and perhaps a bit out of practice. In an unusual move for him, Raphael waited for his opponent to make the first move.

Kate paused a moment before she struck at his side with her spear. Raphael sidestepped quickly to the right. Her attack, however, was not finished. Raphael realized just at the last second that she had wanted him to sidestep.

Swinging the spear around she made a horizontal sweep at his side with her weapon. Raphael just barely managed to dodge by rolling to the side.

Looking up at her face there was something in the dissatisfied look in her eyes that set Raph ill at ease. It was almost like she hadn't wanted him to dodge, to avoid being injured…

Raphael didn't have much time to think any more about it because soon enough she slashing at him again. He blocked some of her attacks with the trident and countered with quick jabs. She dodged all of his attacks.

Kate swiped at his legs and he jumped backwards out of range before lunging forward with the trident in both hands. She just barely managed to dodge the motion. Taking a few steps back she paused a moment before re-entering the fight.

Kate raised the spear and brought it down in a slashing motion. Thinking fast, Raphael caught the tip of her spear in between two of the prongs on the trident. Kate realized a second too late what he had done and couldn't stop him from doing what he did next.

Raphael quickly forced the tip of his trident down to the ground bringing her spear tip down with it. Then he pulled back on his weapon forcing her spear out of her hands. The force set her slightly off balance and she stumbled forward a step. Before she could correct her balance, Raphael jumped up into the air and kicked her backwards twice – first with his right leg and then with his left – before kicking her with both of them which knocked her to the ground. He gracefully landed above her with a leg on either side of her waist and pointed the tip of his weapon at her neck.

At first, Kate was too stunned to do anything but pant. Then when she realized that Raphael had beaten her, her eyes turned angry and her teeth clenched.

"Just… just get off of me!" she said angrily, pushing him back in the chest with her hands.

The backwards motion set Raphael off balance so he went with it and stepped backwards a few feet as he raised himself from his crouched position.

He watched her with confusion as she got up in a huff and glared at him before angrily saying, "You are just so- aagh!" before storming off. Raphael followed her a few steps saying, "Kate, hold on a minute! Did I hurt you are something? Kate!" but he received no answer and he stopped.

Raphael wasn't sure if he felt guilty, confused, or hurt. It was probably all of them. He turned to look at Kyra and Thresh for help.

"Did I do something wrong?" he asked them. Thresh shrugged his shoulders. Kyra looked troubled by Kate's reaction, but she too didn't look like she had an answer.

Raphael sighed at simply watched her as she starting throwing spears through a bunch of targets. Deciding that now wasn't the best time to talk to her Raphael went back to the rack and put the trident back on it. He didn't feel like sparring anymore.

He watched her throw a few more spears before she paused to catch her breath. Then without a word to any of them she moved onto the next section. Her stride was naturally swift and Raphael had to jog to catch up to her. Raphael had just come up to her left side when he tried to speak.

"Hey, Kate, can I talk to y-" Without even waiting for him to finish speaking she quickly cut in front of him forcing him to stop or run into her before walking even faster than normal. "-I guess not," Raphael said under his breath with a sigh.

The next section was archery and by the time Raphael got on the scene Kate had already selected a bow and a quiver full of arrows and was busy shooting them into a target. He noticed that she seemed to be putting a lot more force into shooting than was necessary.

At this point Raphael was feeling very troubled by his already bad situation which had now gotten worse and simply grabbed a bow and a quiver of arrows and random. The bow he selected was a type that he had never used before hence when he shot at the target his mark fell short. However quickly got the hang of the bow's qualities and within a few shots he was hitting the target.

There was something about focusing on the targets that put him at ease. It was like it made him forget to think about his other problems. Whatever it was, Raphael decided he liked it and started to try and shoot targets faster.

After that, he tried to shoot several different targets one right after the other. Then he combined speed with hitting multiple targets. For one of the few times in the past couple of weeks, Raphael was starting to have fun.

One of the assistants was standing by a machine that simultaneously shot five targets into the air. Walking up to the man, he asked him to operate it for him while he shot the targets. Raphael stepped back and waited for the man to press the button.

When the man did, Raphael shot several arrows at the targets as fast as he could. On his first try he got three out of five of them. Raphael nodded at the man and he pressed the button again. On his next three tries Raphael got four out of five targets.

Then, on his next two tries, Raphael got all five of the targets before they hit the ground. Raphael smiled with satisfaction and inwardly he felt great.

Then, suddenly, he became aware of the silence in the room. Nervously Raphael looked around and that was when he realized that everyone in the room was staring at him. All of the tributes. All of the Officials. All of the others. Absolutely all of them.

Raphael realized that he had just made a HUGE mistake in showing them what he could do with the bow and arrows. Panicky Raphael went back over to the weapon rack with a jerky stride as the sweat dripped down his face. As he did he could still feel everyone's eyes on him. It didn't help that he could see Kate glaring angrily out of the corner of his eye.

"Come on, come on, let's go," Raphael said hurriedly to Thresh and Kyra as he pushed them along in front of him to the next and final section. He didn't have to tell them twice and they quickly sped up. Kate stalked after them.

The last section was composed of all unusual or uncommon weapons. Raphael made a quick scan over the racks and he saw a pair of nunchakus, an odd weapon that looked like a nunchaku only had three sections of wood instead of two, and much to his relief a pair of sais.

He eagerly picked the familiar weapons up. Just having a pair of sais in his hands again made him calm down some. It seemed that right now the only thing he had any control over were these weapons and he couldn't have loved them more.

As soon as he picked them up and his moment of calmness passed a jolt of realization passed through him. The eagerness he had just shown with the sais had given him away! Anyone would have been able to tell that from the way he came over to them like a moth to a flame that he knew exactly what they were, how to use them, and that he loved them.

_Stupid, stupid, stupid,_ Raphael thought angrily to himself. _Great, first you almost give yourself away in combat training, then you barely manage to contain yourself in knife throwing, and now you've gone and blown it by showing everybody that you can get fancy with some arrows! The Daimyo and Splinter were wrong- after what I just did I don't have the advantage of a slim chance. I've just made myself target number one._

Raphael couldn't take it anymore. He had to get out of here. If a bell had just wrung across the arena calling all of the tributes to dinner, Raphael might have just run out of there. Even so, he was more than eager to get the hell out of that room. However, his plans were interrupted.

He saw them coming up towards him before he had even taken ten steps. There were three of them. The muscular blonde Career from District 1 and two of the Careers from District 2; the one that looked like Casey and the one that resembled Karai (much to his dislike).

The District 1 Career seemed to be the leader of the three and he walked in between the other two. Raphael kept walking strait and tried to ignore them until it was impossible to do so for they stopped right in front of him. The guy was at least six foot eight inches tall, and he was built like a tank. Calmly he waited for them to speak first. His three (possibly two now) friends waited off to the side. Kyra and Thresh seemed very nervous about the situation.

"That was some impressive archery," the Hun ditto said casually. His voice might not have been as deep as the original, but it was awfully close.

"Thank you," Raphael said neutrally.

"You should have no problem out in the games with skills like that," he went on.

"Yeah, well, the practice for two weeks in advance certainly helps," Raphael said trying to remain as calm about the situation as possible.

"Perhaps," Hun-ditto said with a nod, though he still looked doubtful. Who could blame him? Raph had only been here for a few hours and he was already high above standards.

"Your skills make me wonder; why are you hanging around with these losers?" he said motioning to Raphael's three companions. Kate looked very insulted. "I can tell they're all second rate compared to them. They'll only drag you down in the games. You'd do much better off in the Career pack, you know."

So that was it; the real reason why they were talking to him. They planned to flatter him into joining the Career pack so they could use his skills to take out the other tributes. Immediately Raphael's temper flared and he had to rein himself in to keep from spouting off a dirty mouthful of words. It would be so easy to do to Hun-ditto too.

"Thank you for your offer, but I am perfectly comfortable being with them," Raphael said through gritted teeth as he tried to keep the edge out of his voice.

Hun-ditto's eyes hardened. Raphael got the feeling that he didn't like to be turned down. Kind of like someone else he knew.

"Comfort doesn't hold much ground out there. They won't do you any good," Hun-ditto said with a slight edge that Raphael interpreted as "You'd better not say no to me."

"Like I said; thank you, but no thanks. We've already decided that we're sticking together, and unlike some, I prefer to stay true to the promises I make," Raphael said as his voice rose slightly.

Hun-ditto's eyes narrowed.

"I'd like to see that little twerp do you anything good out there. He can't even climb a tree."

"Neither can you," Raphael replied coolly.

Apparently this was the wrong thing to say for Hun-ditto's eyes became angry.

"Watch what you say," he said as he jabbed Raph in the chest with his finger. This turned out to be a major mistake for in one quick blur of motion Hun-ditto was flipped around in a kneeling position with Raphael holding his twisted arm behind his back.

For a second nobody but Raph was aware as to what had happened. Then once everybody realized what had happened a number of reactions took place. The two Careers who had been with their "leader" looked quite shocked and not sure what to do. Some of the other tributes could be heard laughing from different areas of the arenas. Thresh, Kate, and Kyra all looked at him with wide eyes, though Kate seemed on the verge of laughing herself.

Then finally, the final reaction came from two assistants close by. They quickly came jogging over. "Okay, break it up you two. The games haven't started yet," one said sternly.

"Self defense. He assaulted me," Raphael said in explanation as he released Hun-ditto.

"I did not," Hun-ditto replied angrily as he stood up and turned around to face Raph with angry eyes. "I didn't even touch you."

"Yeah you did. You jabbed in the chest with your finger," Kate said.

"That's not assault!"

"Considering how big your finger is it is."

"Alright that's enough! All of you shut up and get back to your escorts," the stern assistant said even more sternly.

Hun-ditto glared at Kate and muttered under his breath but did as the man said. Kate smiled smugly after him. Walking over to the exit where Alisa was waiting for them, his three companions came up beside Raphael; Thresh on his right, Kyra on his left, and Kate right behind him.

"Thanks Raph," Thresh whispered to him.

"Thanks for standing up for us like that. That guy was scary," Kyra said.

"Nice job, hot-shot. That would have been impressive if it weren't so funny," Kate said with a smirk.

"To all of you; you're welcome. Now can we just get back to our floor? I'm starving!"

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**So that's the end of this chapter. Just hold on for a little longer. The next chapter will be the final chapter before the games begin. Family relations will be getting a little tense right about then... kind of like in my house. So yeah, same thing that I always say; please give me some input it really helps and I expect to find a few comments cheering me on in the next couple of days and if I don't that's fine too I guess. See you later.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Well, it's been a while since I've written, and I apologize for that. On the positive side though, this is a relatively longer chapter and I'm already working on the next one. Oh and grammer word for the day that will appear in this chapter that some people out there might not know the meaning of *deep breath* Cornucopia- the Thanksgiving basket that you always see in the center of the table with fruit and veggies in it. It seemed appropriate since the one in the story will be full of food too. Anyway, moving on...**

* * *

Dinner that night was eaten in silence for a good long while. Jarvis seemed to have nothing better to do than to stare at Raphael unblinkingly. Raphael tried to eat as he felt the man's penetrating gaze on him. Finally though, he had had enough and he looked up at Jarvis.

"If you're gonna say something, say it. If not, stop staring," Raphael said flatly.

Jarvis looked at him calmly before answering. "I could say a lot of things, kid, but I'm not going to say them. Instead, I'm going to say this: good job."

Raphael nearly fell out of his chair. "WH-what?!" he sputtered in disbelief.

"You heard me; good job."

"But, but, you told us not to be flashy, and I, I completely messed up," Raphael stammered, still completely confused.

"Yes, you did go against my advice and to be honest I was really ticked off by your performance," Jarvis admitted, "But right after your little performance I had three very influential men come to me."

"Wait, what does that mean?" Raphael asked.

Jarvis smirked at him. "Congratulations. You now have three sponsors."

"I _do_?" Raphael said gaping.

"Yep."

Raphael took a moment to absorb that information. "So they're going to help me survive out there?"

"They very well could. The money they have supplied you could prove to be very useful out there in the games. Oh and they decided to sponsor you two as well," he added as an afterthought to Kate and Kyra. Raphael didn't notice the glare Kate shot him.

"What about me?" Thresh asked quietly.

Jarvis shook his head. "Sorry kid. I asked, but they weren't interested."

Raphael noticed the degraded look that Thresh had. He suddenly felt pity for him and perhaps guilty about getting the sponsorship that Thresh needed more than any of them.

"I have to admit, I was really impressed with you guys. I think you'll do just fine out there," Jarvis said with confidence.

Raphael was still feeling a little guilty for Thresh, but his guilt was quickly forgotten. Finally things were starting to look up……

…_.11 days later…._

_Tomorrow. It all starts tomorrow._ Raphael stared up at the ceiling as he lay on his bed and waited. The Capital might have pointlessly killed dozens of children every year, but it did at least try to be nicer in one aspect. The tributes were allowed to see their families one last time on the day before the games began. Soon, very soon, he would see his family again.

As usual the Capital played on the cautious side and only allowed one family member to enter at a time to prevent potential escape and allowed them more control. Plus, each family member would only get three minutes. But still, one at a time was better than nothing.

Raphael tried to think what his family would say to him, what he would say in return. He guessed Splinter would give him advice or some kind of Japanese proverb. Donny would probably go off on some kind of statistical rampage on his odds of walking out alive. Given their relationship of late, Raphael guessed that Leo would just glare at him and tell him to come back before saying without words that he was not off the hook in his eyes. Then Mikey… Oh Mikey. Just thinking about his little brother made his chest get heavier and his throat tighten.

He had no idea how Mikey would react to knowing that he might never come back. Honestly, he didn't want to know. Thinking about them pained him too much, so he tried to turn his mind to other thoughts.

In eleven days, Raphael's skills with knots and shelter hadn't improved to any dramatic degree, but they were no longer horrible. He had avoided all of the areas that he knew he was good in and focused only on the areas that he needed improvement on. Now he had practically memorized the animals and plants books right down to the periods on the pages. Thinking about it he was almost smiled. That thought sounded like Donny.

His three friends had also improved in what skills they were lacking in, although Thresh still noticeably dragged behind the others. He wasn't the swiftest fighter, the strongest, the smartest, the quickest thinker, he wasn't the best climber… there was nothing that he was better at; except for running. That was the only thing that he had that was unique to him. They had all tried to beat him in races, but not even Raphael could beat him. Thresh hadn't been joking when he had told them that he was fast.

Of course, he was still also the utmost authority on fish hooks. Raphael had no doubt that that would ever change. He just hoped for Thresh's sake that there was a lot of water where they were going.

He was glad that he had increased of all of his skills as much as possible, for just after he met his family he would go with all of the other tributes for individual evaluation where each of them would be seen by the Games Officials. Raphael didn't have any worries about that though. He already had their attention from the stunt he had pulled on day one. Although he had been more careful since then, he had sensed that even now the attention wasn't completely off of him.

Suddenly there was a knock at his door before Elisa opened the door and poked her head in. "Raphael, it's time to go," she said cheerfully. Raphael jumped up quickly and trotted over to the door before going out and following her.

He hardly paid any attention to what she was saying as she led him through a hallway on their floor that he had never been down before and- after taking several turns- she stopped before a door.

"Alright, just go inside there and your family will be escorted through shortly," she said professionally.

"Um, Elisa, do you know who will be coming in first?" Raphael asked hopefully.

She shook her head. "Sorry Raphael, I can't help you there. But look on the bright side, it'll be one big surprise," she said with a dazzling smile. Raphael grimaced before entering the room.

The décor was simple enough; there were two couches and little other furniture. Somewhat nervously Raphael took a seat on one of the couches and waited. He didn't have to wait long, for only two or so minutes later the door opened again. Donatello walked in, followed by two guards who stood on either side of the door to keep an eye on them.

"Don!" Raphael jumped up and ran to his brother. Raphael could see that the wound that Induna had once inflicted on his arm was healing nicely.

"Hey Raph, how's it been going in here?" Donny asked him as they embraced for a moment, his injured arm a bit stiffer than the other.

Raphael shrugged. "The food's good, though I'm getting tired of fish food. I wouldn't mind some pizza right about now."

Donny chuckled, but his laughter was strained. "Sorry I couldn't bring any for you." Then his brother sighed and looked up at Raphael sadly.

"Raph, I'm really sorry. I've been trying to get at the evidence the Elders used to convict you, but they're about as silent and unrelenting as stone. I thought that if I could get a look at it I could find something they missed, something that meant you couldn't have done it. I-"

"Don, it's okay, I understand," Raphael said as he watched his brother's shoulders slump from regret. "You tried. That's more than I could have asked for."

Donny looked up and gave a small smile. "I'm glad you feel like that. Hey, I have something for you." Then he pulled something out of a small pouch on his belt and held it out to him. Raphael stared at it for a moment before realizing that it was the moonlight hawk pin.

Raphael said nothing as he took the bird pin from his brother's hand, his throat too tight to speak.

"The Elders weren't very lenient, but they did let me take this. I studied some of the rules of the Freedom Games, and they say that the contenders can each have a symbol for their district; some kind of clothing or something of that extent. I thought that maybe you'd want it, you know, because it was His and all," Donatello explained.

Raph was silent for several seconds as he studied the bird's features engraved in silver before he looked up at his brother with a great full smile before he said, "Thank you."

Donatello knew his brother had never been good with words, and that he was much greater full than his words expressed.

Donny smiled and nodded in acknowledgement. "I've got only one last thing to say before I go, and that's good luck. I have a good feeling that you're going to need it."

"Hey, since when have I ever relied on luck? I'm gonna wing it and get out of it just like I always do. You'll see," Raphael chuckled.

"Just don't get too carried away. The next time I see you in person I actually want you to be in one piece," Donny said as he turned to go. By his mind, his three minutes was almost up.

"Don't worry, I will be," Raphael shot back at him.

The guards then escorted his brother out of the room and Raphael was left to wait in silence again. While he waited he kept his eyes on the door as his fingers went over the pin his right hand, feeling all of its grooves and lines.

It was only about a minute before the door opened again. Splinter walked through the door. When the rat caught sight of Raphael, his eyes which had been swirling with worry and stress seemed to clear some. Raphael had just gotten up and taken a few steps towards his father, but Splinter had already made it across the room and gripped him a hug with such force that Raphael had previously thought that only Mikey was capable of.

"Raphael… I," Splinter tried to start, but stopped, his voice heavy with emotion. After a few seconds, he tried again. "Raphael, I am so sorry this had to happen to you. I, as your father, blame myself for this happening. It is my duty to protect you, and I have failed that. And now, because of my failure, you are being faced with this trial. If it was possible, I would take your place, no, I would rather this not happen at all, but neither is possible, the Daimyo has assured me of that. There is no convincing the Elders of your innocence. I have tried over and over again, but they… are unrelenting," Splinter finished with a sigh before simply resting his chin on Raphael's shoulder as he tried to enjoy what time he had left with his son before the inevitable would happen.

It pained Raphael to hear how hard his father had been trying to save him, and it took a few moments for him to relax his throat and force down the tears in his eyes before he could answer. "Even if you could have convinced them to let you take my place, I wouldn't have let you do it. I love you too much for that, and further, I owe you too much. Hell, if you hadn't taken me in, I wouldn't even be alive today probably. Never have I thought that you have failed me, including now."

Splinter pulled back to look his son's face and he smiled with tears in his eyes. "If there was one thing that I was sure of even now, it is how dedicated you are to us; your family." Splinter's eyes shifted and locked with his. "I am _so_ very proud of you, and I feel proud to be able to call you my son."

This time Raphael couldn't hold it back anymore. Hearing Splinter say that his vision blurred with tears before he felt them slowly start to trail down his face. "Thank you, Father," Raphael managed to choke out of his constricted throat.

Knowing how conserved Raphael was with emotions – aside from possibly anger and stubbornness- Splinter knew that beneath his tears he was feeling much more.

Raphael studied his father for a short while more. His injured arm was still in a sling, but other than that he looked fine. They had been embracing for only a few seconds more when Raphael noticed that one of the Capital guards that had been standing by the door had stepped forward and was standing behind them. Splinter noticed the shift in Raphael's gaze and turned around. Seeing the guard he knew he was out of time. Had it really been three minutes already? Turning one last time to his son he said, "Good bye, Raphael, and good luck."

Raphael smiled. "That's what Donny said."

He heard Splinter chuckle as he turned and left with the two guards. Then Raphael took a few deep breaths before hastily wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. If Leo was the next person to walk through that door, he didn't need his brother to see that he had been crying.

However, he needn't have worried for it was Michelangelo who came through the door next. "Raph!" Mikey cried out as he almost ran over to him before tackling him with enough force to almost knock him over. "Hey Mike-" "Raphael, I'm so sorry for everything I did, I'm really, really, terribly, absolutely, completely, sorry. I'm sorry for bugging you all the time, but it's just because, well, you're my favorite brother. I'm sorry for cooking sausage one morning and pouring half a bottle of hot sauce on your sausages when you weren't looking, even though the face you made was really pretty hilarious. I'm sorry for that one time that I knocked you over while riding my skateboard and broke your ankle when I landed on it even though you didn't hurt me nearly as much as I thought you would for it. I'm sorry for that time that I thought it would be really funny to draw on your face while you were asleep with a marker, only I didn't check to see if the marker was permanent, and it was, and- well, you were scrubbing your face for hours yet you only really kicked my ass in practice once. I'm sorry for the time when we were out taking a walk together and I shoved you into the bushes, only it was stinging nettle and you were itching like crazy for a week, and, and, look I'm just so sorry for all of that okay!" Michelangelo finished before sobbing against Raphael's chest, his arms still wrapped around him in arguably the most painful hug he'd ever received.

In all honesty, Raphael had not been expecting such an enormous response from Mikey. It was surprising, and all he could think to do was awkwardly put his arms around his brother as he tried to comfort him. "Mikey, it's gonna be okay, bro. I'm not going to die out there," Raphael said gently.

Mikey sniffed. "You can't possibly know that. There are sixty-three other people out there that could kill you. Did you see that one guy? He looked like he could be related to Hun!" Raphael couldn't help but smile at that.

"True, but, you know me, Mikey. I'm going to come back, don't worry," Raphael reassured him.

"Well, yeah, but-"

"Hey, that guy who looks like Hun, you'll never guess what I did to him first day here," Raphael interrupted him.

"What'd you do?"

"I twisted his arm around behind his back and forced him on his knees. You should have seen the look on his face and his buddies'. It was hilarious."

Mikey giggled. "I would have like to see that. The only that would make it better would be if it were actually Hun."

"Yeah, I can't disagree with that," Raphael admitted. "How's Klunk? I was missin' her earlier."

"Oh she's doing great! April bought these new catnip toys for her- she goes nuts over them. It's really funny to watch her."

"And how's April? And how about Casey?"

Mikey frowned a little. "When we told them what happened to you they were really shocked and upset. Especially Casey. He really seems to miss you, Raph."

"Yeah, that doesn't surprise me much," Raphael sighed. "Still, it must be fun having all of those Purple Dragons to himself."

"Heheheh, yeah, I'm sure he is enjoying it," Mikey said with a nod.

Both of them were silent for a moment before Raphael pulled back with a sigh. Then he looked at Mikey with a serious look in his eyes.

"Mikey, as much as I hate to say it, you're right. I don't know if I'm gonna make it out of this. I'm going to sure as hell try though. But even if I don't, I just want you know, bro, I love ya, and you don't have to apologize for all that shit you pull to make that happen."

As Mikey listened his eyes got wide and his chin started to tremble. "Raph… I love you too. You're the best brother I could have ever asked for… well, even if you do hurt me, and mock me back, and threaten me for doing stuff."

"Hey, maybe if you didn't do that stuff in the first place I wouldn't have to hurt you, mock you, and threaten you," Raphael snorted.

"Yeah, but that takes all the fun out of it," Mikey said mildly.

"Sure, yeah, whatever. Okay look Mikey, tell Casey I said hi and I'll be back before he knows it. And say hi to April too. Oh and pet Klunk for me," Raphael added as he saw one of the guards approach them.

"Okay Raph, don't worry, I will," Mikey promised.

Then the guards took him out and Raphael was alone again. He suddenly felt very lonely. It just wasn't the same without Mikey. He seemed to make everything gain a … a friendly glow for lack of better terminology. With a sigh Raphael waited for who was next. Four down, only one left to go. Raphael was interested to hear what Leonardo would have to say.

It seemed to take a bit longer for Leonardo to enter, but when he did, Raphael immediately felt his hostility. The moment Leonardo caught sight of him Raphael could see his eyes flash. Instinctively his muscles tensed slightly. This did not look good.

His brother did not coming running to him like the rest of his family had. For some reason, that really hurt. Leonardo stopped a few feet in front of him. Both of them were silent for a long pause before Raphael broke the silent.

"So that's it, huh? You have nothing to say at all? Even when I might die?" Raphael said.

He noticed that the hard look in Leonardo's eyes softened for a moment. "Raph, that's unfair to say. You know I love you, even if you find my ways for expressing that annoying and bothersome. But, you really don't have much too convince me. It's your word against all of the evidence the Elders have against you. Heck, it's your word against even _me._ I trusted you when I let you go out that night, and look what happened. I know how your temper gets. I've seen you really hurt people before. It wouldn't surprise me if you lost it. Induna- the guy attacked you, he attacked Splinter, and he attacked Donny. If I were you, I'd be angry too, and, well, considering your attitude, I don't think it too unlikely for you to get mad seeing him after that, and you might have done something you didn't mean to do and things got out of hand and-"

"Shut up! Just shut up, Leo!" Raphael said angrily. "I can't believe you would say something like that. After everything we've been through- the Shredder, Bishop, Hun, Karai- you're just gonna betray me like that?! What the hell Leo! Screw you! I don't need your approval to win this. And don't worry Leo, I will, and once I do you better be ready for the fight of your life!"

"See? Exactly my point. You're already losing control. Yet you still expect me to believe you," Leonardo said with his voice rising.

"Maybe if you would put some faith in me I wouldn't lose control so easily," Raphael replied angrily.

"Yeah? Well then give me one good reason for why I should Raph. Go ahead, surprise me," Leo challenged.

Raphael was silent for a moment and he lowered his head. Then he looked back up at him. "Because we're brothers. We're family Leo. You say it yourself all the time; we need to stick together and look out for each other. Why don't you practice what you preach for me?"

Leonardo's answer came after a long pause. "I'm sorry Raph; but I can't deny facts." Then he turned and started to walk away.

"Fuck you Leo. You sound Donny, and HE believes me. Yeah, go ahead, we'll see how guilty I am after this," Raphael said after him with spite. Leonardo didn't even turn. For the final time the door closed before his eyes, and Raphael was alone. He was seething with rage, and no matter how many deep breaths he took he couldn't calm down.

Raph was still seething when Elisa came and took him, and led him down to the waiting room. His three friends were there, but they could sense his attitude and said nothing to him. District 16 would be last, and so he had plenty of time to wait. He didn't mind though. It gave him time to think and try to calm himself; to meditate. Meditation would take his mind however, and so he gave in to his feeling finally. Focusing on every angry, hurt, and betrayed feeling he had for Leo he got as rage full as he could.

Getting angry felt good, and as one by one his friends were taken into the room and he was the last one left, before finally Elisa ushered him forward, he was still angry. The room inside was basic enough. There was a rack of weapons, several targets, weights, and nearly every other item that had come from each section. The room was white and behind a glass on the other side of the room he could see the Games Officials.

Raphael immediately knew that this was not his lucky day. He had been the last contender to be doing this. For the past sixty-three tributes at least half of the Officials had been drinking- courtesy of the food/drink bar next to the stands-, and so far the effects of alcohol were apparent. The ones who were drunk or a bit tipsy didn't seem nearly as alert as he would have hoped. They hardly even paid any attention to him as he entered the room. Fortunately though, Raphael could see that several of the sober ones still leaned forward in their chairs after catching sight of him. He hoped that he could at least get a good score from them.

Remembering that now was the time to show off in any way possible, Raphael immediately went to the sais on the rack. Then he did every advanced technique that he could think of with his sais before he threw both of them into two different bulls-eyes at the same time. Without pausing, he grabbed knives off the knife rack and started throwing them at targets without even taking a second in between each throw to aim. He hit all targets.

After this he quickly went over and grabbed a bow and a quiver full of arrows. He was certainly hoping that his impressive if not frantically paced performance was getting their attention. Then as quickly as he could he re-shot all of the targets only with his arrows. Lowering his bow, Raphael turned to look back at the Officials as he panted for a moment. He was pleased to see their expressions of shock and amazement. Some of them had their mouths hanging open. Raphael wouldn't be surprised if their jaws hit the floor right about now.

As he racked his brain for something else to do before his time was up, a new idea came to mind. His eyes flickered around the room as he located all of the objects he would need. Then he went over to the rack again. This time he took the dual swords. Turning around he focused on his target. There was a wooden target over on one side of the room. It was nothing more than a simple wooden log; mainly just to help if one of the competitors needed a visual target to carry out their attacks. Raphael didn't need it for a visual; he used his imagination for that.

Thinking about Leo, his anger flared back up again. He ran at the target before jumping into the air before slashing the wooden post with both of the dual swords. Lashing back around he sliced at it several more times fiercely. Again and again he slashed at the wood with rage. Now it seemed like almost a good thing that Leo had given him a reason to be angry. Then for a finally he crossed the blades in front of him and sliced them deep into the wood. His energy exhausted, he looked back up at the Officials.

Several of them were taking notes on him furiously. Even some of the drunk ones. Raphael smirked; it looked like things were going his way after all. Behind him he heard the door to the room open. Turning his head he saw that it was Elisa who had entered. She made a summoning motion with her hand so he put the swords down and followed her out of the room. As soon as they were out Elisa turned and looked at him.

"Raphael… that was amazing. I wouldn't be surprised if you beat even those Careers," Elisa said with amazement.

"Uh… thank you," Raphael said with surprise. He honestly hadn't expected Elisa to say anything. Actually, he hadn't even known she was watching.

"Well, come on. We've got to go back to where the others are while we wait for them to announce your scores," Elisa quickly changing subject. Then she strode off down the hall. Raphael trotted to catch up to her.

After several turns she led him into a room where Kate, Kyra, Thresh, and Jarvis were all waiting. They were sitting on two couches and looking at a TV screen on the wall. When Raphael and Elisa entered, they turned their heads to look at them. Thresh smiled a little, but there wasn't much emotion on their faces.

Nervously, Raphael followed Elisa's lead as she walked over to one of the couches and sat down. Looking at the computer screen, Raphael could see that it was getting ready to show the scores of the tributes. He could see the Games Officials all seated and talking amongst themselves. This went on for about another thirty seconds before the talking abruptly stopped and one of the Officials passed a paper to a man standing by.

There was a pause, and then the first tribute appeared on the screen. Raphael couldn't help but frown. It was the Hun like boy from earlier. "…Caiman of District 1… fourteen," the TV said, and a fourteen appeared by Caiman's picture. _Caiman… I'll have to remember that,_ Raphael thought.

He paid attention to the rest of the tributes from District 1, but he was really interested in two particular tributes from District 2. Then the screen changed and it was another character, the girl who looked like Karai. "…Katniss of District 2… fourteen." _Sounds like a cat food brand,_ Raphael smirked. Then there was another girl whose name was Kita who got twelve before the one who looked like Casey appeared. "Jared of District 2… thirteen." _Sounds like those three are going to be a challenge._

The scoring carried on in this matter for all of the following tributes. All of the Careers got scores from twelve to fourteen. After that the scores decreased and increased typically in relation to district, before finally it came to District 16.

Raphael leaned in closer slightly almost unconsciously and he listened and watched. Kate's face was the first to appear. "…Kate of District 16… fourteen." This was followed by numerous congratulations throughout the room and a very proud looking Kate. Then everything fell silent again as Kyra's face appeared. "Kyra of District 16… fourteen."

"Hey, nice job. I bet you did real good with your knives," Raphael said to her with a smile. She blushed with gratitude and mumbled thanks.

Once again all fell silent again as Thresh's face came upon the screen. "Thresh of District 16… eight." There was a noticeable pause before anyone said anything. Raphael noticed that Thresh seemed upset by this. "Hey, you tried kid, don't let it get you down," Raphael said. Thresh gave a small nod. He still looked a little upset.

Then finally Raphael's own face appeared on the screen. Raphael held his breath as they announced his score. "…Raphael of District 16… sixteen." After this there was a sudden thick silence as everyone in the room automatically started to stare at Raphael. He felt distinctly uncomfortable. "Um… is sixteen good?" he asked for lack of anything better to say.

"Good? _Good?_ Are you kidding me? Hell yes it's good. No one, _no one,_ has ever gotten the highest score before," Kate said.

"So that's good, right?" Raphael inquired eagerly.

"It's good for attention from the sponsors," Jarvis said with a nod.

"Or the other tributes," Kate mused.

"Especially the Careers," Jarvis agreed.

"So what, it's like a double-edged sword or something?" Raphael asked with exasperation.

"You could call it that," Jarvis replied. "Fortunately though, no one has ever gotten the maximum score before so I doubt you'll have any shortage of outside assistance in that arena."

"Okay, so it could either kill me, or it could save me. That's basically what you're saying?"

"Pretty much."

"Great. Just great."

"Don't get snippy with me. You could have acted like a big wimp out there. Who knows, maybe getting a lower score would have done you more good. Too late to change that now, though. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go see if you have any new sponsors yet," Jarvis said as he stood up.

Raphael watched him leave with annoyance before turning back to the other three who were still seated around him. "Okay, you can all stop staring at me," Raphael said patiently at the sight of their expressions.

"Sorry Raph, it's just that… getting sixteen for a score… it was really unexpected even for me. A lot of tributes have gotten fifteen in the past, but no one before now has ever gotten the max score. The fact that you just did is really pretty amazing," Thresh said.

"As much as I hate to say it, it's pretty impressive for even me. What did you do in there?" Kate asked.

"Um, I threw some knives… used some sais… bow and arrows… and then dual swords."

"You did all of that in just a few minutes?"

"Yep."

"Impressive. Perhaps being in a pack with wasn't such a bad idea after all," Kate said with the slightest hint of a smirk.

"Um, yeah, right," Raphael answered with a slight blush. Kate still hadn't forgotten that he had sort of declared that even though it hadn't been _quite_ true.

"Well, you four had better get some rest. The games begin tomorrow you know," Elisa said as she stood up.

_Right… tomorrow…_ Raphael looked around uneasily before he got up with the others and once more followed Elisa out of the room…..

Raphael was briskly awakened by Jarvis shaking his shoulder. "Wake up kid, time to go," the man said as Raphael opened his eyes squinting in the bright light above Jarvis' head. "What time is it?" Raphael asked as he got up. "Six o'clock."

"Why so early?"  
"Because you still have to eat and get dressed before the Games start," Jarvis answered. Raphael frowned. There was something in the sentence he had just said…

"Wait, what do you mean get dressed? I wasn't aware that there was some kind of dress code," Raphael asked realizing what it was.

"'Ya mean Elisa didn't tell you?"

"Didn't tell me what?"

"Humph, guess not. Well, basically every year for the Games there is a uniform given out depending on the environment in the arena. For example, one year they gave out light weight waterproof uniforms that had a flotation device on the belt since most of the environment that year was like an ocean. Make sense?"

"Yeah, I got it," Raphael answered as he followed Jarvis' long stride out of the room.

Jarvis led him into the dining room. Everyone was already seated there. _Why am I always the last one to always be seated?_ He mused with slight annoyance.

Jarvis and Raphael quickly took their seats. "Alright, everybody eat up. Once you all get out there you won't know when your next meal will be so snarf some food down now. That will be one of my last pieces of advice. Moving on, it's time to finalize some plans. So from what I know- and feel free to correct me at any time if I'm wrong- the four of you are going to form a pack. That's fine, I suppose, although I don't typically like packs. They cannibalize themselves. But if you feel that that's what it will take to take down the Careers, go right ahead.

Now I'd suggest sticking to cover. When you get out in the open, you're vulnerable and make an easy target. So stick to the trees- if there are any- or some rock formations, or any kind of shelter you can think of. Don't venture out alone unless it's part of your plan.

Furthermore, stay away from the Cornucopia. There are going to be a lot of weapons, food, and medical aids there, but whatever you do don't try to defend it. You'd never win against eight Careers on equal ground and especially not without the element of surprise, and not to mention all of the other tributes who will be trying to grab something. If you have the time to do it, grab something right quick then get the hell out of there. Understand?"

Jarvis paused to looked around as the four of them nodded in understanding. "Alright, furthermore, I'd advice you not to eat anything you think might be poisonous. That kind of goes without saying, but if you don't want to end up dead it's worthy advice. And although some of you might not know this-" he glanced at Raphael, "- the other tributes won't be the only things you'll have to face out there. A lot of times the environment itself is rigged like a giant trap and can kill you just as easily as the tributes. Then there are sometimes creatures in there that can kill you. Not to mention the Games Officials themselves. If there isn't enough action for too long, they'll stir up something to bring you together to fight with another. It might be some terrible trick, or it could be Feast where they draw you together with the temptations of food, weapons, and medicine. Never, ever, lower your guard out there. It just might be the last thing you ever do.

Also, I'd advice to avoid confronting the Careers as long as possible. Let them go ahead and pick the other tributes off and themselves. While they're busy hunting down the others you get ready for a fight. Plan, never act rashly. Once it's down to your little group and them, then try and go for it. By then it should have cannibalized quite a bit so you'll have a better chance of killing them off.

And speaking of cannibalizing, watch out for yourselves. When numbers in the arena get low you might start to feel antsy, like everyone around you is trying to kill you. Although that is true in a sense, don't let your imagination control you. You're going to need each other out there. When the time comes for when you no longer assist each other in any way, separate immediately. It's best that way.

Does anybody have any questions?"

Jarvis looked around expectantly. No one said anything. "Good, now eat up. I'll catch up with you later." And with that- not too surprisingly- he left the room.

Raphael sighed. "You know, sometimes I have to wonder if he even cares about us. But then he comes out and tells us a bunch of stuff. One minute he's in, the next he's out. It makes me wonder why he does that in the first place."

"Who knows? It's Jarvis we're talking about here," Kate said with a sniff.

The next ten minutes were silent as everyone tried to eat a good breakfast. No matter how hard he tried though, Raphael didn't feel like eating. He was too nervous. Glancing around the table Raphael could see he wasn't the only person having trouble eating something Still Raphael did his best to stuff his stomach with food.

After they were done eating- rather, after they couldn't bear another bite of food from nerves- Elisa got up and escorted them back to their rooms. Entering his room, Raphael noticed there were clothes laid out on the bed. Curiously he went over and examined them.

There was a shirt, pants, a belt, a pair of gloves, and shoes. Raphael fingered the fabric with interest.

It was colored like army camouflage except there were brighter specks of yellow, red, orange, and brown. It also wasn't as heavy. It seemed to be designed to be light weight and heat resistant. Raphael thought that maybe they'd be in a tropical arena of some kind. The multiple colors and lighter/darker patches certainly would make it easy to blend in with jungle under brush.

The gloves unlike the shirt and pants were all black, but they didn't hinder movement at all so they were okay. He was surprised that they had been able to find three-fingered gloves for him.

The shoes were made of leather, and had grooves and bumps on the bottoms of them for good traction.

Done with his investigation of them, he proceeded to put them on. He had to admit; they weren't that bad considering he was unaccustomed to wearing clothes.

Sitting back on the bed he waited for either Jarvis or Elisa to come and collect him. He thought it likely that Elisa would come, but he would prefer it if Jarvis came. Much to his surprise however, it was Jarvis who walked through the door.

"Alright kid, time to go," Jarvis said as he summoned Raphael with his hand. Getting up he followed Jarvis out of the room. Jarvis lead him through the maze like floor once again before entering another room. Raphael was surprised by what he found. The room they entered was dark, except for a circular platform in the center. There was a cryptic design on the circular platform, the rim was made of stone, and yellowish light filtered up light sunlight almost to the ceiling above where an identical platform faced downward. Raphael watched with curiosity. Jarvis noticed his gaze.

"That will teleport you to the starting point in the arena. Just stand on it and clear your mind then it'll send you there. I must warn you though, it feels quite strange, but the feeling will go as soon as you arrive in the arena," Jarvis explained. Raphael was quite impressed, though also perplexed. The Capital seemed to be a land stuck in between technology and mystical arts. It somewhat reminded him of the Foot who used advanced technology, yet controlled the Foot Mystics... or had until the Original Shredder had come at least. It was an interesting- though also dangerous- combination.

Jarvis continued, drawing Raphael out of his thoughts. "Once you have been teleported, you will find yourself on a platform on one side of the arena. DO NOT step off of it before the horn sounds. If you do, you will be blown up by planted landmines. All that'll be left of you is red mist. Once the horn sounds the bombs will deactivate, so it will be safe for you to step off. And I believe you have already planned a little already?" Jarvis asked. Raphael nodded in confirmation. "Alright kid, it's time for you to go," Jarvis said with a flicker of... regret in his eyes? Raphael studied his eyes for a moment, trying to figure out what he was thinking. Then it hit him like a slap to the face.

It _was_ regret, regret that he had to put him through this ordeal. Every year he had had to do the same thing over and over again. He had trained up a bunch of awesome children and quickly grew bonded with them, and then just like that they had been sent out into the lion's den and slaughtered. At first he had tried to save them, to bring one of them home, but the pain became too great, and soon it became so much easier just to drink away haunting memories of the faces of children he had failed year after year. It was difficult to see, but the haunted look was still there in his weary grey eyes. Raphael felt a little respect for him for the first time, for what this man had been through and survived. Before turning and stepping on the platform, Raphael took a breath and said, "Thank you, Jarvis, for everything you've done." At first his reaction was one of brief surprise, but it quickly became gratitude. "Go get'em kid."

Then Raphael turned and walked onto the the platform. Recalling Jarvis's instructions, he quickly cleared his mind. A tingly feeling worked its way up his body, and then he was gone.....

* * *

**Well I'm going to try and get that next chapter done as soon as possible, so hope it won't take as long as this one did. I hope you enjoy it in the meantime, and please review. Bye.**


	15. Chapter 15

The feeling Raphael experienced next was the strangest feeling he had ever experienced in his entire life. He felt like he was falling, yet he could tell he wasn't, and he couldn't feel himself falling. His stomach felt pitched upwards, yet he wasn't aware of moving downwards. His heart was in his throat and although Raphael felt like it should be pounding rapidly, he could feel it beating at a perfectly normal tempo. When he breathed in his lungs felt constricted, but if he didn't breathe at all, he felt no oxygen depletion. It was like he was stuck somewhere in between reality and death, if he could describe it any way possible.

It ended quickly however, and when it did Raphael opened his closed eyes to a breath taking sight. The arena was amazing. All around the edges of the massive arena was a tall wall of hedges that created a barrier. Stretching before him for several hundred yards was a lush green field filled with hundreds of flowers in various colors and shapes. Sniffing the air, he found that it smelled deliciously sweet. There was something strange about the scent though, a slightly muskier odor that relaxed him; made his mind fuzzy; lulled him into a false sense of security. Shaking his quickly he jerked himself out of it, scanning the flowers warily.

Beyond that he could see a rainforest that sloped upwards. He could see steam rising upwards from the trees, and there were tiny specks of birds flying in the distance over the trees. Off to his right side there was a stream that flowed from the forest and into a pond that glittered like crystal with the brilliant sunlight that beat down on him. He could feel the heat from the sun beating down on his face already.

Off to his left the golden Cornucopia rested in the grass, glittering brightly. It was over flowing with weapons, food, and various sized packs and packages. It was some distance away, but he could make out a few things. Studying the pile, he quickly chose a few targets of interest, chiefly among them a pair of sais, a large back pack, a bow and a quiver of arrows.

Glancing to his left and right he could see the other tributes lined up in a strait row on platforms identical to his. Kate was to his direct left, Thresh was five down to his right, and Kyra was seven to his left. They all seemed to be placed at random.

Suddenly he heard a trumpet horn and immediately he leaped forward off the platform and ran for the Cornucopia. The other tributes seemed delayed and sluggish from the flower scents and stumbled a second or so after him. He used the second to his advantage to sprint for the Cornucopia. He could tell with his peripheral vision that his three friends had all responded quickly as well, and he could see a shadow to his right quickly catching up to him who he identified as Thresh.

At his speed it didn't take long for him to reach the Cornucopia. Rapidly he grabbed the big pack he had laid eyes on. It was heavier than he had previously expected to be, which was good because it was filled with stuff. He unzipped the side zipper a small amount and quickly shoved a few weapons and smaller packs into it before quickly pulling it onto his back and running to grab a few weapons, including the bow and quiver he had been eyeing before and the sais.

His friends were already gathering as well, and he glanced at Thresh as he grabbed knives and a small pack, Kyra packing a back pack with food and weapons while grabbing a bow and a quiver as well and grabbing a handful of knives. Kate was busy grabbing spears and a back pack as well.

By now the other tributes were nearing the Cornucopia. Even though it was not part of their plan to take control of the Cornucopia, it was part of their plan to get as much as they could successfully carry before fleeing under cover so getting a little fierce and providing cover for each other would be especially crucial.

There was a boy about thirteen or fourteen running up to the Cornucopia. The flower scent was overwhelming, and making Raphael's thought processes delayed and sluggish. Without even thinking, Raphael picked up a lance and threw it, unconsciously aiming for the boy's chest. It embedded in his body, strait through his heart and out through his back. He sunk to the ground immediately and a cannon shot from somewhere unseen accompanied his death.

Then Kate jumped in front of him and threw three spears in rapid succession. She killed one, and injured two others. Taking his bow he strung an arrow and shot at Jared, the one who looked like Casey. He quickly moved however and the arrow only imbedded in his shoulder. Raphael shot two more and hit one tribute in the stomach and the other in the chest. There were two more cannon fires.

By now a large number of the tributes were closing in, including Caiman. Glancing around at his friends, he saw they were ready to go, loaded with supplies. "Head for the trees," he signaled to them before firing four more arrows behind him and rapidly picked up two quivers of arrows as he ran after them. He heard three rapid cannon shots behind him. Glancing behind him he saw three had been killed with his arrows.

The four of them didn't stop until they made it across the field of wild flowers and under the shadows of the trees. Raphael was the last one to get under the canopy, and he was also the most heavily laden with items. The effect the flower scent had had on him was bad. His mind was moving slowly, and he was having trouble thinking. Moving around made him feel off balance. He tried to think something up quickly, but was met only with a slow mental response time. All of his limbs felt like lead. Looking around at the others he could see they felt the same.

"What the hell's going on?" Kate panted out, putting a hand to her head. "It's the flowers," Raphael realized suddenly. "They're poisonous. I wasn't sure before, but now I'm positive of it. When we were first on the platform, I felt kind of sluggish after sniffing the flowers a little, and now we all just ran across a field of those flowers and this is what happened to us."

"So the flowers are what poisoned us?" she asked dubiously. Raphael nodded. "They have to be it. Maybe one flower on its own wouldn't be enough to kill, but look at how many flowers were out there. If we ended up like this just from running across it, then it seems likely longer exposure to that poisons it might have been fatal."

"That might actually work to our advantage. The Careers will be taking control of the Cornucopia soon no doubt and being surrounded by the flowers on all sides they'll be exposed to the poison, though to a lesser extent since the flowers stop a few dozen yards before the Cornucopia. Of course, it also would be a disadvantage to anyone approaching," Kyra said thoughtfully.

"Let's think about strategy later and get a move on," Kate said strictly as four more cannon shots fired, signaling that the Careers were taking action in securing the Cornucopia. Even now they could see many of the other tributes running for the forest. Kate glanced over at him. "Nice shot back there by the way. You felled that guy real fast. First kill of the games. Congrats."

The poison made his mental reaction slow, but Raphael felt his blood go cold and a jolt went through him when it him what she had just said. First kill… he had made the first kill, and he hadn't even felt a thing. It horrified him how he had killed so easily and so quickly without even thinking about it, just ending the life of such a young child. Raphael didn't answer, just followed the others in a state of shock as they made their way through the trees to better cover…

Leonardo watched with a darkened expression as Raphael made the first kill of the games, watching how easily and emotionlessly he did it. It did nothing to discourage his sureness in his brother's guilt. He heard Mikey's sharp intake of breath when it happened, and saw Splinter wince.

The four of them were in the Watching Room, the room set aside for families of the tributes. This is where they came to watch their children fight in the bloodbath that the Capital dared to call a game. All of the families gathered here in the same room and watched the same TV screen. After Raphael killed the first boy, a woman sitting next to two little girls let out a cry and broke into sobs.

He saw Michelangelo cast a sorrowful glance over at her and the two little girls who had also begun to cry. No doubt they had just seen their brother killed. Leonardo utterly detested these games, and not just because his brother was in them. Actually, at the moment his emotions were in a state of turmoil; two conflicting images of his brother.

There was the brother who had killed Induna in cold blood for hurting Donny and Splinter in a tournament where injuries were inevitable and who had an overwhelming amount of evidence pitted against him and was now killing without any emotion at all, and then Raphael, his younger brother, the brother who loved him to death even if he didn't often show it for all the arguments they had, who was desperate to get him to believe him, who truly might be innocent, whom he had betrayed. Raphael's words still ringed in his ears. _"Because we're brothers. We're family Leo. You say it yourself all the time; we need to stick together and look out for each other. Why don't you practice what you preach for me?"_ The words touched something deep inside of his conscious. There was just something so innocent, so… Raph-like about them that made himself want to go down there himself and get his brother out of there.

But as he watched his brother kill five more people, and heard the sobs and cries of those families who had loss of life, his heart hardened again. First ten minutes into the games and he had already killed more people than anyone else. He watched and listened to his brother in stony silence as they talked about poisonous flowers.

"You think he's guilty." Leo jerked with a start to look at Donatello who was looking at him steadily. Leonardo didn't answer. "You know, I've heard it been said that silence is as good as a confirmation," Donny pressed, not excepting Leo's evasive response. The oldest brother turned back to the screen. "So what if I do."

Donny's eyes narrowed. "He's our brother."

"You're point being?"

"You're the one who's always going on about family being important. What's changed your mind now?"

"I think you can guess the answer to that question."

"Oh really? Humor me."

"You're the one who's always going on about evidence and science. Look at what they have against him; he's as good as guilty no matter what he says."

"And you're just going to choose some stuck up pussy cats over your own brother?"

"Why aren't you? If it was anybody but Raph you'd say they were guilty by now."

Donny considered him carefully for a moment. "I believe there are other forces then just fact and unproven-ties. Right now, I'm going off my gut. And besides, even on a scientific level I don't have 100% confirmation of the evidence they provided. So far the felideds are the only ones who have examined it. They haven't permitted anyone else to examine it on confirmation, not even the Daimyo's men who they are loosely working with. I even talked to the Daimyo himself. He said that he had been unable to get it from them. I'm not one to jump to conclusions, but so far I've summed up that they have evidence they are unwilling to share with anybody else so the possibility of them lying because they needed someone to blame or because they didn't want to admit someone worse had done it are fairly high, I've got my innocent eyed and spoken brother who has no guilt from what I can tell and shows no physical signs of lying whatsoever, and I have my gut to go on which is clenching rather uncomfortably with suspicion making me question if everything here is really as it appears to be."

Leonardo looked at him. Donny watched him back. "So, what, do you think they'd be lying about something as serious as this?" Donatello frowned. "Shredder could have done it." Leo thought this over in silence for a moment. "And what if your gut's wrong? What if he really is guilty? Would you really want to have guilt about believing in someone who's guilty?"

"Would you just shut up Leo?! What is wrong with you?! Raph's out there and he might die and, and, you don't even care!" Mikey said angrily to his brother, tears in his eyes. His response quite frankly took the others aback. Leonardo hadn't been expecting such a Raph-like response from Mikey of all people, and for a moment it through him off. Instead he just stared at Mikey's angry and hurtful eyes looking back at him before turning and looking back at the screen without another word…

Raphael panted hard and sweated profusely as the four pushed onward up hill. "If I make it out of here, I'm never going to a rainforest. EVER," Raphael muttered under his breath as a vine fell in his face. It seemed as though the Officials had tried to make it as difficult as possible to get through the forest. There was dense underbrush that cut at their bare skin and tried to trip them up, vines that hung down like a thick leafy curtain that were so heavy and thick it was hard to cut through, and in some places the trees were so close together that they had to go around. All of this uphill, mind you. Finally, after about thirty minutes of hard hiking they came across a small open patch where they decided to rest.

Raphael dropped the pack off his back and collapsed onto the ground in a cross-legged sitting position, sweat dripping down his face and his breaths coming in desperate gasps. The effects of the flower poison had worn off mostly by now, but he was still a little lightheaded. It also didn't help that the forest seemed to be well over ninety degrees.

His three friends also dropped their stuff and sat down to take a rest. "I think we should divide our stuff up more equally according to each of our strength levels while we're resting here," Kyra said after several moments of rest, noticing Raphael's heavy load. The four nodded in silent agreement and grabbed for their items.

Raphael unzipped his pack. It was so full he had difficulty getting it open. Once he had opened it, he pulled out the packs that he had previously shoved in there and some of the smaller weapons as well. Then to his surprise he pulled out three large canteens filled with water. Digging around, he found several sealed packs of dried fruit and jerky. He set all of his items out in front of him with the others.

In total, Raphael had three packs of each of dried fruit and jerky, three canteens of water, four knives, two medicine packs, three quivers of arrows and two bows, two sais, and a medium sized sword.

Kate had four spears, one trident, seven knives, six packs of dried meat, two swords, a roll of gauze, and a small vile with a liquid in it that Raphael later learned was an expensive and very effective pain medicine.

Kyra had thirteen knives, one quiver and bow, one canteen of water, one pouch of medicine, and a small throwing ax.

Thresh had five knives, two spears, six packs of dried fruit and four packs of jerky, and a… bowl.

Kate looked at Thresh incredulously. "Why'd you grab a bowl?"

"I didn't, it came in the back pack," Thresh said defensively turning scarlet.

She shrugged and picked it up, flipping it around disinterestedly. "I don't see why we would need one. Why would they put it in there in the first place?"

"I don't think we should be so quick to just toss it," Kyra said wisely. "It may have some value later on. Perhaps the Officials thought it crafty to make an over looked item a key essential."

Kate thought for a moment and seemed to agree with Kyra's advice for she set it back down and discussion on the bowl ended. Instead she glanced over at Raphael's items.

"You sure got a lot of water in that pack," she commented. "I know. I was wondering why it was so heavy," Raphael answered rubbing his neck. "It'll be helpful though, considering how hot is in here."

"I suggest that everybody gets one canteen of water," Kyra said. Raphael nodded before handing a canteen to Kate and Thresh. "Evening out the food would also be wise," Kyra continued. "Since there's twenty-two food items, Kate, Thresh, and myself will each take five and Raphael you can take the remaining seven." The four of them dispersed the items without saying a word as they followed her suggestions.

"Now for the medicine. I think we should disperse them accordingly to the likely hood of each of us getting hurt. Kate, Raphael, and I should take one of the medicine packs, and you Thresh should take the gauze and the pain medicine. You're fast, so you're less likely to become injured than the rest of us," Kyra said logically. Quickly they spread those out.

"Then for the weapons. Kate, you're the best with spears so you'll get five of them, and then Raphael will take the trident and I'll take the remaining spear. Thresh, two of those swords are smaller, so you'll take those, and Raphael, that last one's bigger so you take it. Raphael, you're the best with a bow and arrow so you'll take two of the quivers and one of the bows and then Kate and I will take a quiver and a bow each. You'll also take the ax and obviously the sais, Raphael. Then Raphael, you'll take six knives, Kate will take six knives, I'll take eight knives, and Thresh will take nine knives," Kyra finished.

That made sense to Raphael. He would have fourteen weapons, Kate would have thirteen, Kyra would have eleven, and so would Thresh. Kyra had also organized them in such a way that they had weapons that benefited them the best. It all worked out very well and he was impressed with her organization and planning skills.

"You're really good at planning. That'll be a great help," Raphael commented. "Thanks," Kyra said quietly with a smile.

"Alright, that's all fine and dandy, but what we really need right now is to find a water source. Those canteens will only last for so long," Kate pointed out.

"The stream that emptied into that pond in the field was on the right. If we keep heading in that direction we'll have to run into it. Then we can just move up and down the length of the stream accordingly until we find a suitable place," Thresh said.

"Well then let's get moving," Raphael said as he stood up and grabbed his back pack before swinging it around onto his back. It was indeed a great deal lighter without all of the water in it. The others got up without another word and they all moved on in silence.

After traveling for only a few minutes, it soon became apparent that traveling horizontally at an angle in a horrid rainforest was just as bad as going straight up hill. Being at an angle made their footing rather off balance, especially when this fact was combined with the extra weight all of them were carrying. Plus with all of the foliage, it was quite easy to trip, and Raphael himself came close to tumbling down the slope a few times.

It took them nearly forty minutes to reach the stream. Traveling was proving to be much more difficult than Raphael had imagined it would be. Although he had to admit, it had its pros with the addition of its cons. The sounds were quite interesting. All around in the trees many different bird calls could be heard from unknown points of origin. Some were high-pitch, some were low-pitch, other were trills, some brief chirps, while others still were like long sirens. They were most interesting.

There were also the new sights. Many times he saw flowering plants from his plant book. The flowers were beautiful, although much to his disappointment nearly all plants that he laid eyes upon were poisonous.

Still, they were interesting to see and most smelled quite good as well.

After coming upon the stream, the four decided that it would be best to travel uphill so they would be as far away from the Careers as possible. It was noticed quickly that travel directly next to the stream was considerably easier than it was through the dense forest. Even so, it was nearly two hours before any suitable spot for rest and refreshment was found.

The small refuge they found was a simple, but glorious little thing it was. There were berry bushes all around, and trees with perfectly ripened fruit hanging enticingly from their branches. It was quite like a miniature of the Garden of Eden to the four weary tributes. The ground was soft and somewhat bouncy under Raphael's feet and under closer inspection it appeared to be covered in a fine moss.

"Well, I'd vouch to say this place seems as good as any," Kate announced putting her bag down for a moment. Her attention was quickly drawn by the berries, as was Raphael's. Although he would have gladly eaten many right then and there-for despite his large breakfast the move uphill had already exhausted much of his energy- but Jarvis' words of advice rang in his head and he carefully examined them before eating. Kate did not have as much caution and without hesitation picked a handful of the berries.

"Wait! Don't eat them!" Raphael warned with urgency just as Kate was bringing them to her mouth. "What's the matter with them?" she questioned.

"Look at the base of the berry- five small black leaves," Raphael explained patiently. She did, and indeed there were five distinct leaves on all of the berries in her hand. "And now look at the leaves on the plant. Slender, serrated, and rubbery feeling. The flowers also; they have five black petals." Kate's face suddenly went white as she realized what plant he was identifying.

"Oh my god, how could I be so stupid?" she moaned, quickly dropping the berries. For she had just almost eaten Coxentine's slumber; an extremely poisonous berry that would kill in minutes. The berry juice possessed toxins that entered through the salivary glands and quickly to the brain, where they made the sorry victim become dreadfully sleepy, until they collapsed into sleep they unfortunately would never awake from. They earned their name from this fact and from the first person to study the poison. The berries appeared incredibly alluring, and very closely resembled the harmless and quite flavorful sixtid fruit which she had mistaken them to be. It also wasn't just the berries that were toxic, in fact, it was the whole plant.

"I suppose I owe you one now," Kate said grudgingly. "Just don't get yourself killed before your usefulness is used up," Raphael said coolly and rather coldly in response. She flushed from both embarrassment as well as anger. In truth, Raphael was quite annoyed with her careless actions. The games had only been going on for a few hours and she was already throwing extreme caution to the wind.

"Raphael, come look at these berries," Kyra said, distracting him from Kate. He came over to where she was examining a different kind of berry bush. "Tell me what you see," Kyra simply stated. Raphael did, before his eyes widened in surprise. "These are poisonous." Kyra nodded and then pointed to a different bush. Even a short distance Raphael recognized them to be poisonous. "Hey- these are poisonous too! And the trees... that fruit's toxic! What the heck is this?" Raphael exclaimed in confusion. All of the berry bushes and fruit trees which minutes ago had seemed so inviting, were now all poisonous and dangerous each and every one of them. Then a remembrance occurred to Raphael. Hadn't they passed multiple poisonous plants on their trip here? Thinking harder, he realized that every plant they had come across so far was either a non-edible plant or poisonous. "Oh no," Raphael voiced softly with dread.

"What is it?" Thresh asked with alarm.

"Everyone, quick, look around in the bushes, the trees, the water... look for anything. Bugs, fish, birds, just look at them and tell what you see," Raphael directed quickly. Sensing his urgency, the three quickly began following his orders. Indeed what they did find was truly distressing. Hidden in the grasses, barks of trees, and leaves of bushes many beetles, moths, and other such creatures that scurried, scuttled, crawled, and flew were found, all possessing toxins of various degrees. Raphael caught sight of a purple feathered bird with orange/red spots on its wings high up above in a tree, which he identified as a poisonous sun spotted warbler. Studying the river with her keen eyes, Kyra caught sight of a few small shadows. Throwing her knives into the water she pinned several small fish to the riverbed. Quickly withdrawing them she identified them as being mildly poisonous as well.

"All of these creatures are poisonous!" Thresh cried out. Raphael nodded, his worst fears confirmed. His eyes shifted to the stream which trickled on constantly, completely unconcerned with their dilemma. "I wonder," Raphael muttered thoughtfully to himself. He then approached the stream and knelt down beside it. Then he cupped his hands together and scooped up some water before slurping it into his mouth. He swished the water around in his mouth a few times before spitting it out onto the ground.

The water tasted queer. Firstly it tasted slightly sour, and then it left a bitter taste in his mouth. Then he stood up and turned to his friends who were looking at him with silent anticipation. "Bad news; I think the water's poisonous too," Raphael said gravely.

"What?! How can the water be poisonous?!" Kate said with disbelief.

"If poisonous plants have placed root along the bank and in the water, and poisonous fish swim in it, and other poisonous beasts swim and drink from it, then it should also seem likely that the water would have some of its toxicity," Kyra said.

"But if we can't hunt animals, forage for roots and berries, or even drink the stream water, how are we-" Kate suddenly stopped abruptly, a pallor crossing her face as she suddenly realized it at the same moment the others did. They looked at each other then looked back in the direction where they had started, dread settling into the pits of their stomachs with the sickening realization of the twisted trick the Officials had pulled on all of them. With no way to get food themselves, they would have only choice when the food ran out.

They would have to return to the Cornucopia.....


	16. Chapter 16 Day One

_They would have to return to the Cornucopia….._

For a long while, the four of them just stood in silence, trying to absorb what they would have to do now. "Well, this certainly changes things," Raphael mused aloud finally.

"Yeah… I suppose it does," Kate said in reply, rousing from her stupor.

Raphael looked to Kyra. "I don't suppose you have any plans on how to get around this problem?" he questioned her hopefully. She shook her head. "No, even I didn't expect something this… horrible."

"None of us did, but now we'll have to work with it," Kate said bitterly. "But fortunately for us, you seem to be full of good plans," she continued, pointing to Kyra. Kyra's eyes narrowed slightly, but she didn't object to being appointed maker of the plans.

"Well in that case, we should sit down and get comfy." All of them obeyed her and they took a cross legged position.

They all thought for a few minutes. "Alright, we know that the Cornucopia is the only place with food and water, which means if we run out- especially water- we will have to confront the Careers. My question is how will we do so without getting ourselves killed?" Kate began.

"I think that perhaps you are making this a little direct. The Careers are not the only ones with food and weapons. The other tributes also would have grabbed food and water," Kyra pointed out. "Challenging the Careers would be dangerous, fool hardy and almost guaranteed for failure. However, few to none of the other tributes are in a pack, or even a pair. Granted, there are a few from the same districts that have paired up, but we still outnumber and match them.

If we were to target individual targets rather than the large group which is the Career Pack, our chances of successfully obtaining their supplies would be greatly increased. In addition, we would also be able to eliminate the competition, ending these games sooner," Kyra theorized.

"Yes but how will we find them? This place is huge," Kate challenged.

"Same way the Careers do. We'll spread out, lay out traps, watch for signs of other tributes. Then when the right moment arises we'll strike. We've already gone out quite a ways from the Cornucopia, and sooner or later the tributes will also figure out that the Cornucopia is the main source of supplies. So we'll work backwards. For today we'll gather materials for traps. I've already seen that they are in quite a large abundance. Then tomorrow we'll spread out and head back in the direction of the Cornucopia, laying out traps as we go. That way if anyone attempts to approach- or leave- the Cornucopia, they will run a high risk of getting caught in traps that only we will know the locations of. And even if they don't run into the traps, they may run into us.

Although I will admit that you do have a point with this place being huge. Ultimately we'll just have to rely on luck and pray someone will stumble into us or our traps. But then again, it's worked before in past years so there must be some logic to it," Kyra finished. Kate sighed in defeat.

"Alright, I consent. Your plan's better. So when do we start?"

"We could start right away. For the remainder of today we'll gather the materials we will need to make traps. At the same time we can get familiar with the grounds and the terrain. After we're fresh and rested up tomorrow we can really start putting our plan into motion.

And if we do happen to come across any other tributes they'll just be like bonus points," Kyra added, finished explaining.

Thresh and Raphael turned their heads and looked at each other with amused expressions. They hadn't even said a word on the subject, nor had they been invited to. Raphael was quite surprised how Kyra had suddenly taken charge. He was very glad she was on his team. Her plan was lethal.

"Well, let's get a move on," Kate clapped her hands together as she stood. This drew Raphael out of his thoughts and the three others quickly scrambled to their feet and grabbed their bags.

It was quickly decided the most effective way would be for the four of them to split up, but maintain a close distance so if one fell into danger the others could assist. They would stay in contact by long whistle once every two or three minutes. If they needed help or came across something interesting that they wanted the others to see they would whistle twice in rapid succession. If they did not whistle, it would automatically be assumed that something was wrong and the others would come.

The rest of Day One passed on with little excitement. Three more cannon shots were fired from somewhere behind them, but they never came across the other tributes. For this Raphael was exceedingly grateful. After the incident with the poisonous fruit, there had been little to keep Raphael's mind from being haunted by the faces of the dead.

In all honesty, Raphael was ashamed and humiliated by himself. Killing in these games went against everything he had ever been taught. It threw his conscious into mayhem, and guilt threatened to engulf him at any second. It haunted him for hours.

About mid-day Kate whistled twice rapidly, calling them to a slightly less woody place where they stopped to have lunch, which was rather sparse- small amounts of dried fruit, jerky, and a few sips of water.

The amount of energy it took to travel amazed even Raphael. He had always thought he had rather good endurance, but this forest was completely crushing that strength that he had. Worst of all, despite the fact that he was incredibly hungry and his throat was dry, they had to ration their food because they didn't have any food or water readily available outside of what they had packed. He hoped this would all end fast.

Most of their breath had been spent just hiking, though they did make some small talk; the plants they had found, if this plant was too worn or that plant too young, a final confirmation or two on how to surely identify this uncommon plant, etc. In these conversations Raphael took no part in, and even when his opinion was invited he shrugged or shook his head in response.

It wasn't long before he became aware of the strange and quizzical looks Kate kept giving him at every opportunity. She obviously suspected something was wrong with him, but thankfully she didn't bring up the question publicly in front of the others.

After lunch, they continued in their search for trap supplies. This was how the rest of their day was spent. Although they didn't meet any other tributes, they did find a few good spots to lay down traps and plenty of plants for making them.

As the day light started to fade away, Kate whistled twice, calling the others. Raphael was the first to arrive. Kate had found a small- emphasis on small- clearing that was just large enough for all four of them to lie down in with perhaps room enough to turn over.

"I think this is a good place to stop for tonight," Kate said once all of them had arrived. The three others agreed.

They carefully put all of the supplies they had gathered off to the side. Most of it was the plant called tender shoot grass, though there was also stickle thorn brush, sap fern, and various uncommon plants.

They then prepared to set up camp. There wasn't much preparation to be done. It was so hot that had they received blankets in their inventory, they would have had little use for them. The same was for a fire. The most they had to do was clear away some pokey branches on the ground.

Just as the sun set and all light gave way to a dark, star filled sky, a hologram appeared in the sky. Raphael knew from what Thresh had told him that it would show the faces of those that had died today. Once more he was forced to see the faces of those he had murdered. When all deaths had been presented, the hologram disappeared and the sky was darkened once again. None of them had been Careers.

Afterwards, they settled down for sleep. Where Raphael was lying on his shell, he was looking directly up at the bark on a very low hanging branch.

With the darkness came a whole new set of sounds. While the day had been accompanied mainly by bird and bug noises, the night was full more of shrieks, howls, and a few bird noises, mainly those that sounded like owls, as well as bug and perhaps frog croaks as well.

Despite the racket, it was not the noise that caused Raphael to toss and turn in his limited space that night. Every time he closed his eyes he just saw the faces of those he had killed. Although he had known he would have to kill in the games if he wished to make it out alive, never had he imagined that he would take it as hard as he did now.

"Psst. Raphael." He tilted his head to look at Kate in an upside down manner. She was propped up on her elbows looking at him.

"You're moving around a lot. Everything okay?" she asked with a surprising amount of concern. Raphael sighed before replying. "No."

"What's the matter?" she questioned. Raphael turned his head back straight and resumed staring at the bark, trying to form some kind of reply. He closed his eyes for a moment. He heard Kate shuffle around and when he opened his eyes he saw Kate looking down on him, her face upside down to his for she had been laying down directly opposite of him. "Are you going to answer me or not?" she demanded in a whisper. That sounded more like Kate. Raphael paused a moment before he gave his answer.

"I can't stop thinking about them."

"Who?"

"Those people I killed." Kate studied him quizzically for a moment.

"Why not?"

"Everything I've ever been taught my whole life by my father is telling me I did wrong in killing them. I didn't even mean to kill them really; the flowers made my thoughts so messed up that all I could think about was staying alive. I kind of panicked. I didn't even realize it until after you congratulated me on making the first kill," Raphael said.

Kate thought for a moment. "Killing in these games is inevitable. None of us want to do it, but we're forced to do it anyway. If anything, I think you may be lucky," Kate said.

"How am I lucky? I've had everything but good luck for the past few weeks," Raphael said miserably.

"I think you may have a kill sense." At first Raphael thought he had heard her wrong.

"Wh… what? What did you say I have?"

"A kill sense," Kate calmly answered him.

"That… that can't be right," Raphael dismissed it.

"No, I think you do have it," Kate insisted. "One year District 3 had a champion with the kill sense. He was actually a neighbor of mine. I asked him one time how he had killed the other tributes so easily, how he could do it without flinching. He told me that every time he fought all he could think about was staying alive, almost to the point where it was pure panic, and after that everything he did just kind of happened, like his body just knew what to do automatically and he didn't have to focus on killing them.

That will to survive gave him the drive to kill. The way he described it sounded a lot like what you said you felt when you made those first kills."

Raphael's mind raced as he tried to find an explanation to prove her theory wrong, but some doubts were starting to creep into his mind. Now that she mentioned it, he did recall feeling a sort of rising panic in the back of his mind when those first tributes had approached him. He had felt for sure that they were going to kill him… and they probably would have too. But at that moment he hadn't had any worries. He was armed and they weren't. He had the advantage. Yet he had been on the verge of completely panicking. And he killed them without thinking about it.

"Then how come I've never killed before now?" Raphael asked weakly, the thought giving him an unsettling feeling.

"You said you've been trained your whole life not to kill. Killing when there are other solutions just doesn't come naturally to you because of that. Perhaps it's been suppressing the kill sense all along. And you've always had your family to back you up. But now for the first time you're in a situation where you're all alone and if you don't kill you'll be killed. I think it's starting to wake up so to speak. Or maybe it's always been kind of 'drowsy'; there but not taking control. Do you ever get it fights or stuff like that?"

He suddenly remembered all the times he had fought with common thugs and Foot ninja, how he had never even hesitated to inflict attacks that could have led to their deaths. Was that purely heat of the moment impulse or had it been a kill sense all along? It scared Raphael to think of how many people he could have killed and severely wounded. But it had to be wrong. Splinter had taught him better than that. He knew when enough was enough. Then there were all those times though, when even he knew he had gone too far after the fact. Was this really who he was? A natural killer?

Kate seemed to sense his distressed mood. "Hey Raphael," she said getting his attention. "I'll give you the best piece of advice I can give you out here…. Put aside your conscious. This isn't the place for it. Compassion and second guesses will only get you killed out here. You need to be merciless and precise, or you will never survive."

Raphael inhaled slightly. How could he expect himself to be merciless? On the other hand, what if he never got to see his family again because he was too weak? Both thoughts seemed disgusting and horrifying to him, but thinking of Mikey's face made the latter suddenly become the more terrifying thought. His brother's smiling face, his laughter, the pranks he pulled, the way Klunk curled up on his chest when he fell asleep on the couch as his mouth fell open slightly and he snored lightly, muttering to himself…No… he had to be strong if he ever wanted to see his little brother again, even if having his sibling know what sins he had committed meant that their relationship would never quite be the same again. His family was worth it, even Leo.

"…Thank you….Kate," Raphael said finally, though she could tell from his tone that whatever decision he had reached it pained him. "You're welcome," she nodded.

Then she crawled back into her original position. Both were silent for a long while before much to Raphael's surprise, Kate spoke. "You know I envy you," she said hesitantly. "Here, in this world we're all taught growing up that we have to kill to survive. Learning to kill is a necessity of life, whether it's for killing fish or preparing us for potentially entering the games, even though we always scream at ourselves subconsciously for doing it. Yeah, even I do it. But you… I can tell where you come from it's different. You don't always have to kill just to live on to the next day. Your demeanor is more relaxed. I'd give anything to have a life like that, without having to worry I'll starve to death, or be killed out on a boat trying to support my family by myself. I envy you for that," she finished.

He sensed a hesitation in her, like she wanted to say something else, but she didn't. Raphael was quite stunned by her behavior. First she had given him advice, and now she had just admitted she envied him. She had always seemed to rough and stubborn to him that it almost seemed like he was talking to a different person. "You're strong, you know," Raphael answered finally. He could sense her smile. "I know," she said with the confidence that was akin to her. Sleep seemed to come more easily to Raphael after that…

Things had quieted down in the Watching Room with the coming of nightfall. Tributes were less active at night and so viewers could get some sleep. But as Raphael talked with Kate, no ears and eyes had been on them more than his brothers'.

With his 'third eye', Leonardo had always been able to sense when something was bothering his brothers even without looking, and something had been bothering Raph ever since the beginning of Day One. Now he knew what it was, and doubt once more surrounded his opinion of his brother's guilt.

He wasn't the only observant one, however.

"He's such a guilty criminal. Brilliant liar. Master mind killer, isn't he?" Mikey murmured indirectly to his eldest brother, his voice thick with sarcasm.

A ping of guilt went through Leonardo's chest…..

**Did you catch that bit about Kate having to support her family by herself? No? Well tuck that away in some special drawer in your brain because that will be instrumentally important later. And don't worry for all those of you who think Leo's an A$$, it'll catch up to him eventually. Slowly, but surely. Like a climactic crescendo followed by a big accented BAM!**


	17. Chapter 17 Day Two

**I just couldn't resist adding this funny bit here. I mean, they're in a jungle. You just can't get enough bugs. *Evil LOL***

Raphael woke up groggily to a slight tickle on his nose. At first he was tempted just to brush it away with his hand, but in his sleepy state he was too lazy to do that. So he put up with it.

But was he became more alert, he became aware of something strange. Although there was a tickle on his nose, it was inconsistent; it would tickle for a few seconds before pausing, and then resume tickling. Also, there were a few other points on his face where he could feel something prickling his cheeks. His curiosity aroused finally, he opened his eyes… and looked right into the eight eyes, ferocious fangs, and hideous, tickling little feelers of an enormous, disgusting, terrible spider!

"Shit!" Raphael shouted and sat up like a shot, viciously banging his head on the branch in the process.

"What, what?" Kate asked groggily as she tried to wake up as quickly as possible, Raphael's shriek waking her up. The other two woke up in roughly the same manner.

Meanwhile, the spider had dropped from Raphael's face when he had sat up and was now scurrying for a foot hold on the fabric of his sleeve. Raphael fervently shook his arm while swearing as he squinted one eye closed from the pain of slamming his skull against solid tree.

The terrified and perhaps permanently traumatized spider went flying off of his arm and landed on its back a few feet away.

As soon as the spider was off of his arm Raphael scrambled for his sai before finally finding it and began stabbing at the spider. However, the spider had righted itself in the time it had taken Raphael to find his sai and was now running around wildly as Raphael continued stabbing at it.

It was very speedy though, and it took Raphael several attempted stabs as well as frequent curses before he finally got it, and even then it was only several stabs later that he was satisfied it was dead.

He caught his breath for a moment before realizing that all three of his friends were now staring at him like he had lost his mind. "So… what'cha got there?" Kate finally said with some degree of uncertainty. They hadn't seen the spider in the faint morning light and no doubt thought he had lost a screw or two over night.

"A spider," Raphael answered. At first there was no response, and then smiles slowly spread across their faces before they finally started making unintelligible noises as they tried to hold in their laughter. Seeing that they were on the verge of laughter made Raphael angry and promptly say, "It's not funny," which all of them to be _very_ funny and immediately started laughing.

"Oooooh, a spider. That's so terrifying and ferocious," Kate laughed. Raphael glared at her.

"I didn't know you were afraid of spiders, Raph," Thresh teased as he giggled.

"I'm not afraid of them, I just don't like bugs. And besides, it was on my face and it was huge," Raphael said in defense.

"Oh yes, I'm sure it was. Come on, let's see it," Kate taunted him.

With a growl, Raphael speared the dead spider on the end of his sai and flung it at her. Even Kate couldn't resist letting out a shriek when the spider carcass which was easily bigger than the size of a man's hand was flung at her face. She quickly swatted it to the ground with her hand before it hit her.

"Holy shit, you weren't kidding," Kate said studying the massive spider on the ground.

"I told you so," Raphael said crossly. She watched it for a moment before jumping back and shrieking, "It just moved!" Raphael jumped back and threw his sai into the spider with a fright.

"It's still moving!" She said shrilly. "Wait, no it's not," Raphael said with a frown after watching it a moment. Then he looked up at Kate who was watching him with a massive smile on her face, and he realized she had tricked him as she burst out in laughter.

"Got'ya," she declared triumphantly.

"It wasn't that funny," Raphael muttered as a deep blush rapidly overcame him.

"Well, I think we've wasted enough time," Kyra said with a shake of her head and smile. "Let's head out." Raphael couldn't agree more.

Although Kate still smiled at Raphael, no more was said on the spider incident. Since they had scouted out the surrounding area the day before as well as gathered supplies, they were now ready to lay several traps out today. They would work in pairs. Raphael would go with Kyra, and Thresh would go with Kate. Kate wasn't particularly pleased with the arrangement, but she didn't complain, no doubt due to her already good mood.

Raphael and Kyra would head in the direction of the stream, and Kate and Thresh would go to the other side of the arena, finding suitable locations for different traps, laying them down and making sure they were hidden, then once they had made it to their ends they would work their way towards each other again in a loop like route until they met roughly in the middle before going another loop closer to the Cornucopia. Basically, their route looked like two tight squiggles that always met in the middle and covered a large amount of ground before finally getting to the edge of the woods. They could tell where the middle was by climbing high trees and looking for the edges of the trees. If they didn't meet each other on the loop back they'd just keep going. The plan was simple enough although it would take several days to complete, but none of them had anticipated the troubles that lay head.

Raphael and Kyra had begun adjusting to the rainforest terrain quite well so moving about proved easier for them than before. Along the way, they both stopped a minute to get a snack and a drink of water.

Continuing on, they didn't talk. Yesterday had been different- it had been their last chance to have an open conversation. Today though, they were hunters, and hunters had to be silent and stealthy to capture their prey.

Although they had traveled a fair distance into the forest the previous day, they were quickly nearing the stream. That was when things went wrong.

Raphael was following behind Kyra when he heard the slightest sound of whistling air.

"Get down!" Raphael cried out to Kyra as he helped her do so by shoving her to the ground. His timing couldn't have been better for an arrow streaked by where her head had just been and into a tree. Kyra had turned around mid-fall and was now looking up at Raphael who was on top of her.

Raphael didn't have time to pardon his position because no sooner had they landed did Raphael immediately grab her shoulders and roll them both over to the left to avoid being impaled by a spear. Kyra ended up underneath him again.

Quickly Raphael leaped up and drew his sais. Another spear came down from the tree in front of him. He dodged to one side before looking up at the tree where it had come from. He could make out a fuzzy figure in the leaves.

With a growl rising in his throat, Raphael ran for the tree. An arrow came from the tree next to it, but missed. Knowing now where both of his adversaries were and being closer to them, Raphael willed himself to let go of his fear of killing and threw his sais up into the two trees.

A yelp was heard and two cannon shots fired- sounding as though they were coming from the trees themselves- as both bodies fell out of the trees. Raphael silently walked up to one of the bodies and pulled his sai out before doing the same with the other. Then he cleaned both off in the grass before staring at the bodies with mixed feelings; guilt that he had killed them but joy that he was one step closer to seeing Mikey again, the one goal that seemed truly worthwhile enough to kill for.

Kyra watched him with amazement. She knew that he had just made two very good shots. She couldn't help but feel admiration for him and his skill.

"Thank you, Raphael," Kyra said as she got up. She also knew he had just saved her life twice.

"Don't mention it," Raphael replied before continuing his investigation of the two dead tributes. He discovered that they had three knives a piece, a quiver of arrows and a bow, and several packs of food. Grabbing their items he put the food into his own pack and handed Kyra the weapons. Then they both continued onward.

Meanwhile, Kate was slightly annoyed. Thresh was not as swift or quiet as she was in the jungle and he was slowing her down. Thresh was doing his best to keep up with her and panting from the exertion of doing so, but her legs were just too long and her stride too fast.

"Would you _please_ try to keep up?" Kate snapped in a lowered voice as she slowed down once more for Thresh.

"I'm sorry… I'm… trying, but I'm just… not as fast as you," he panted out as he stumbled over a particularly tall log. Kate sighed.

"Alright, I give. We'll take a break," she said in defeat. If Thresh hadn't been panting so hard, he would have let out a sigh of relief.

As basic and inadequate as the food selection in the games was, their meal- like Raphael's and Kyra's- was also dried fruit, jerky, and some water.

"Okay, kid, this isn't working out. You need to move those feet of yours faster, or Raphael and Kyra are going to outpace us," Kate said harshly.

Thresh shrunk a little. "I'm trying to keep up, I really am, I'm just not-" he suddenly stopped, as his attention was caught on something above and behind Kate. His expression portrayed fear.

Kate turned to see what he was looking at. In the tree behind them was a creature that resembled a cross between a squirrel and a raccoon. It was somewhere in the middle for size, but it had the ringed tail, mask, and hands of a raccoon, while the face, and tail were more squirrel like; as was the coloring, which was a rusty red color. It had sharp claws and teeth, though the teeth were hidden in its closed mouth.

Both of them recognized what it was right away. It was a chicka-chicka, named so for the most common sound it made (a furious scream) which sounded like, "CHICK CHICK CHICK!" Despite its small size, it was an aggressive carnivore that could take down animals many times its own size. Not on its own, of course. No, what made the chicka-chicka so dangerous despite its lovable appearance was the fact that it attacked in groups, working together to rip apart large animals so they could all eat. One on its own was rather timid and lost, but together they had confidence and aggression to take on any adversary.

Where there was one, there was bound to be more, and right on cue another jumped down on the branch beside the first, both staring at Kate and Thresh. Out of her peripheral Kate saw another move to a lower branch, and then another one, and another. Quickly looking up with her eyes but being careful not to move her head Kate could see several pairs of amber eyes fixated on them.

Thresh too could see many on his side. Scanning around nervously he rapidly counted 37. Turning his head slowly to look behind them he counted ten more.

"Thresh, slowly turn your back to my back," Kate whispered. Thresh did as she said while never taking his eyes from the chicka-chickas. Now they could see them all better and could cover each other's blind spot. Slowly Kate pulled a spear from her back and a knife from her belt. Thresh took out his two swords.

For a long time, no one moved, and then a particularly bold chicka-chicka dropped down in front of Thresh and hissed, baring its fangs. Thresh remained perfectly still.

"Get ready. Once one goes, they'll all go," Kate whispered urgently, sensing the tension increase in the beasts after the one dropped down. Thresh gulped.

Everything seemed to be in slow motion for a long moment, before the chicka-chicka in front of Thresh leaped at him. The reaction was instantaneous. Immediately all of them began moving, screaming, "CHICK CHICK CHICK!" over and over again.

Thresh quickly sliced the bold one with his sword, but several others rapidly swarmed him. Kate used her spear's reach and their lack of it to her advantage and speared several of them, quickly pulling back and moving on to the next one before they could counter.

Several tried attacking Thresh at once and he moved to the side quickly and slashed them all with one swipe of his sword, killing one and injuring the other two. He flipped one of the swords between his teeth and quickly drew a knife. Then he threw his knife into one of the injured killing it before putting his sword back into his hand.

The chicka-chickas seemed to quickly realize that they couldn't beat Kate by just simply attacking randomly and several retreated back to the trees, climbing high before attacking from above.

"They're coming down from the trees," she warned Thresh as she swiped her spear upwardly deflecting two while kicking out with her feet and slashing with her knife as several more on the ground tried to take advantage of her momentary distraction and attack her legs.

Thresh just managed to move to the side as one tried to jump down onto him and quickly drive his sword into it as he narrowly escaped the jaws of another on the ground.

"There's too many of them! We have to run!" Thresh cried out.

"Run where? They've got us surrounded genius!" Kate yelled watching wearily as five climbed up high into the trees above and got ready to jump.

"When I say move left, you move left. Got it?" Kate said.

"Got it," Thresh responded.

"Alright… LEFT!" Kate shouted as all five chicka-chickas jumped down. Thresh rapidly moved left with Kate who moved to her right, careful to avoid the chicka-chickas that tried to bite his ankles as he moved in their direction.

Neither of them was quite fast enough, however, and Kate acquired a few scratches from a clawed hand and Thresh received a gash down the right side of his face. "Gah!" Kate snarled as one slashed her shin. She kicked it away and threw her knife into it and grabbed another simultaneously slashing in front of her with her spear to keep them from approaching while her left side was vulnerable.

Blood dripped down the side of Thresh's face, and the creatures seemed to relish the smell of the freshly spilled crimson drops for several had their gazes fixated on his wound.

"You okay?" Kate asked quickly. "Good enough," Thresh said with equal haste, quickly cutting down two more.

Kate threw her knife into one of the creatures and drew another spear. Now able to take out twice as many as before the creatures immediately picked up on her new approach and backed off slightly.

Instead, they turned to the weaker one of the two; Thresh.

"They're going for you Thresh," Kate yelled.

Thresh couldn't answer because he had four leap at him at once. Kate circled around in front of him before they could kill him and killed all four of them in mid air with two swipes of her spears. While doing so, however, she made a fatal error; she turned her back to the others. They immediately reacted as they started running and leaping for her, saliva dripping from their jaws.

"Kate!" Thresh screamed in warning as he lashed out with his swords to stop them. She jerked her head around in time to see one that had gotten past Thresh leap at her. She brought her spear up in front of her in defense and its jaws closed around the wooden shaft. Then she kicked it off of her spear before stabbing it and twirling on her feet to go back to being back to back with Thresh.

The chicka-chickas paused a moment after this, eyeing them both with indecision as to how they should proceed next. For the first time since the start of their attack they seemed to be worried about the outcome. Already the pack had been cut down almost to half by Kate and Thresh's duo. Still, the chicka-chicka is a very determined creature and submission to prey is not in their nature, so again they regrouped and readied for another wave of attacks.

"Well, it looks like we're gonna die," Kate said with weary calm. Blood was dripping down from many of her cuts and she panted heavily. "Thresh, I'd just like to say that I've always sort of liked you in an annoying, dead weight kind of way."

"Gee thanks," he answered sarcastically with a scowl.

It looked as though the chicka-chickas were getting ready to attack again when suddenly the crouched and snarling bodies suddenly stopped snarling, stood up, their tails erect and their noses in the air. Their ears twitched and their nostrils flared as they sniffed the air and listened carefully. Suddenly, all of them seemed to be struck with fear and the remaining live ones dashed off into the forest in all directions, their shrieks of "CHICK CHICK CHICK!" fading away.

"Holy... that's it; we've got to have some kind of angel lookin' over us. There's no other explanation," Kate said in amazement as she looked around in the trees. Chicka-chickas NEVER, EVER, _EVER, __EVER_ deserted live prey. They were so blood thirsty that they'd sooner all die than retreat. It was why they were the symbol portrayed on so many war banners. They were the most significant symbolic animal for war, bloodshed, and driving determination.

But yet, something had scared even them, and it struck something inside Kate's heart and filled it with suffocating terror. She fought it back down under control and then looking around uneasily quickly put her weapons away. "Come on, Thresh. Pick up your weapons out of the bodies and then we'll go, before they come back or whatever scared them arrives."

Thresh mutely obeyed and they rapidly searched through the dead bodies finding all of their weapons. "There, now let's get moving. We've got a lot of time to make up and ground to cover, injuries or no injuries. We can treat them later. Raphael and Kyra will be waiting for us and... Do you hear that?" Kyra stopped suddenly, cocking her head slightly to one side as she strained to listen. Thresh listened too. Yes, there was an interesting sound. A quiet, discrete sound that resembled the wind brushing threw leaves on a tree, or trickling sand. Only two problems; there was no wind and there was no sand. It was something else.

Locating the sound Kate turned around in the direction where it was coming from and squinted in that direction, studying the trees suspiciously. They listened to it for a short while before Thresh finally spoke up. "Kate, let's move on. Whatever it is... it's giving me a bad feeling," Thresh pleaded. Kate said nothing and listened for a few more seconds before nodding and they continued moving on along their designated route…..

* * *

**Hmmm, a mystery. I'm sure you'll have fun figuring out what it is :D *Insert very evil and sadistic laugh here***


	18. Chapter 18

**Sorry this took so long. Oh and if anybody on story alert got three emails for a new Chapter 17 and one for a Chapter 18, I apologize, I was editing some grammar errors ^^; Be aware that more might come. BTW, has anyone noticed the picture link I have on my profile now?**

* * *

Kate and Thresh traveled silently; nervously. Even though they were moving relatively quickly, the creeping sound continued to follow behind them. Neither could figure out what it was, or what could cause it, but Kate feared that it was some trap set by the Officials.

"Kate, do you think we should keep laying out traps with that noise behind us?" Thresh asked worriedly.

"Of course. Why would you be stupid enough to ask that question?" she snapped, her anger hiding her own fear.

"Well, I just thought that maybe it might not be safe," Thresh muttered.

"We've got nothing to worry about," she answered with more confidence than she felt.

However, every time they stopped to lay down a trap the fear returned. The most fearful thing was that there were no other sounds at all, just the rustling. Normally there would be all kinds of noises in the forest, but all creatures had seemingly vanished. By this both of them _knew _something was wrong. They continued on anyway.

As they neared the turning point, though, it became apparent to them that the rustling was growing louder, and whatever was making it, closer.

"Kate, I really don't like this. Can't we figure out what it is? It's driving me crazy," Thresh begged. He sounded very distressed.

"Okay," Kate said without a fight. By now, she too was growing worried.

The two of them carefully crept back in the direction where the rustling was coming from, eyeing everything warily. What they found however, would shock both of them.

As they moved back in that direction, the noise grew louder and louder, setting both of them into even further unease. Finally, Kate took the last few steps forward into the brush and discovered their mystery sound.

"Oh my god," she froze when she saw what it was.

Thresh came up beside her and looked also, drawing his breath in a gasp when he saw.

"Thresh, we have to get out of here," she whispered.

It was the middle cutters, the giant ant species that lived only in a select few rainforests in Pallor. Perhaps giant was a bit of an overstatement; the real giants were the minute cutters, who controlled an entire country of their own to the south of Pallor and could reach heights of three feet tall and five feet long, their jaws a foot wide. Also renowned for being able to kill and devour a human being in under a minute.

There were three species of cutters; common cutters, middle cutters, and minute cutters. The common cutters were your typical ant that never got bigger than half an inch long. The middle cutters- the ones they faced now- reached lengths up to six inches long. And as stated before, the minute cutters were the biggest and the baddest. All species of ant flourished in a colony of hundreds of thousands of individuals who could clear out an entire kilometer sized section of a forest of all trees and animals in about a week. They would work day and night, the colony never being completely still. All that would be left that would show they had been there would be the mournful carcasses of trees, their leaves and many of their branches eaten away.

Now it made sense to Kate how something as fierce and determined as the chicka-chicka could be scared away. No animal could fight off creatures that came in such numbers that possessed a painful bite and a poisonous, paralyzing sting. The carcasses of the dead chicka-chickas had no doubt already been stripped of flesh to the bone by the many jaws of the cutter colony; and if they didn't hurry, they would be next.

Kate grabbed Thresh's arm as she dragged him in a run. He snapped back into reality and stumbled after her. She ran almost parallel to the cutters, slightly in the direction away from them, but still roughly parallel.

"I can't believe we didn't recognize the noise they made," she said angrily to Thresh.

"Well, it's not our fault that we've never heard a cutter before. We don't live in a rainforest," Thresh said, trying to make her pride a little less wounded. It didn't help much.

"All the books we read mentioning them said that when they were on the move it sounded like the wind rustling through the leaves on trees," she protested.

"We've never actually heard one though," Thresh retorted. "And maybe we can have this conversation later?" he added.

Kate realized he was right and her-self loathing discussion came to an end. They focused on running. The cutters were fast, and traveled rapidly over the forest terrain with ease and the two of them were quickly realizing that there was no way they could get out of the way of this colony in time.

"Kate, we're not going to make it," Thresh vocalized their fears as he half ran half stumbled up beside her.

"I know," she said dully. For some reason, hearing Kate sound like she was giving up made Thresh angry.

"Come on, follow me," he said and he changed directions, heading more in the same direction that the cutters were.

"What are you doing?" she shouted as she followed him.

"Maybe we can just get past them before they cut us off down here," he panted jumping over a large rock.

"Maybe," Kate said quietly.

They ran as fast as they could, but it was no use. The cutters had the advantages of having no extra luggage on their backs and being better designed for the rainforest. Combined, these two advantages meant they were catching up.

Realizing this, they were forced to change direction again, this time running in the same direction as the cutters.

"So, any last words while I'm thinking about it?" Kate asked.

"I've always thought you were stubborn, temperamental, sarcastic, and sometimes rude; so far I've been right on all four counts," Thresh answered.

Kate shot a glare at him to see if he was joking, but apparently he wasn't because there wasn't even a smile on his face. "Anything else?" she growled. He shook his head. "Good. Or I would have tripped you."

Despite their situation, Thresh laughed. It was short lived, however, because they suddenly became face to face with the hedge barrier. They were out of space, and out of time. Both of them whirled around to face the sea of ant that was coming towards them.

"I never thought I'd be killed by cutters," Kate muttered. "Think we should just kill ourselves now and have them take our corpses? I've heard being eaten alive by cutters is excruciating."

Thresh answered with the most unrelated and out there question. "Are cutters flammable?" he asked suddenly.

"What?" she blinked at him.

"Are cutters flammable? You know, can they catch on fire?" he asked again.

"I guess any creature can," she answered then narrowed her eyes at him. "Why? Are you getting plan, Shorty?"

As the gears worked in Thresh's head a smile started creeping across his face. "I think I am."

He immediately dropped to the ground and began looking for something. "What are you doing?" she hissed as she watched fearfully as the cutters drew nearer.

"You know how I always watch my feet so I don't trip on anything?" he asked eagerly.

"Vaguely," Kate answered.

"Well with all that time staring at my feet, I've been able to notice the rocks."

"So?"

"I've noticed that there is quite an unusual amount of flint," he said.

"Flint… fire," Kate said somewhat blandly, not quite getting what he was saying. "Your point?"

"We'll burn them," Thresh said, holding up a fair sized piece of flint. Then he took a steel knife out and quickly hit one against the other above a dead weed.

"I think I saw a spark," Kate commented. Thresh did it another time and a few more sparks was the result. It took several more strikes to make the sparks stick, and small candle like flames rose up on the plant.

"If your plan works, I'm never going to badger you about being slow again," Kate vowed.

"I just hope it does," Thresh muttered as he picked up other small pieces of brush and sticks and lit them on fire as well. Then he threw the sticks and brush in the direction of the cutters. Some of the sticks landed in the approaching cutter ranks while most of the lighter and less airborne brush landed in front of them. The result was good regardless.

The immediate flames that rose up struck panic in the stricken cutter ranks and the cutters in the front stopped when they came to the flames and started running around in confusion. The fact that there was fire seemed to rush quickly through the cutter ranks because quickly for all of them seemed to be become confused.

By now the little bush Thresh had used as a starter was a small fire and he only had to grab several sticks at a time, light them on fire, and toss them at the cutters. The more fire that spread through the ranks, the more they panicked. Cutters that had caught on fire were running around frantically setting other cutters on fire that went and did the same things. Being so close together and in such great numbers meant that running into another cutter was unavoidable. Soon there were hundreds of cutters running in a panic catching each other on fire.

Confusion had spread like a disease from this un-fightable attacker and none of the cutters were in the orderly ranks and steady streams that they had been in before. Now they ran around helplessly.

"Thresh, it's working!" Kate said excitedly. She herself grabbed a few sticks and shrubs and threw them at the cutters in a different direction. As sadistic as it sounds, she kind of liked doing it. Even in the damp environment of the rainforest the bugs caught on fire easily.

"Um, Kate, I think maybe we should get moving," he said with sudden worry. "Why's that?"

"Because I didn't think of them setting the forest on fire," he said as he watched a frantic cutter try to run up a tree trunk and instead catch it on fire with its own burning body before falling down onto the other cutters.

"Oh," Kate paled. They both looked at each other for another moment before they took off running. They ran past the cutters without the frightened creatures even noticing. Their problems were more important than prey anyway.

As they ran past cutter after cutter both were amazed at how big the colony really was. They past row after row, hundreds of ants that looked close enough alike to be clones, each with pincers razor sharp. It was scary. Fortunately even the cutters in the ranks farther back didn't try to harm them. Glancing back over his shoulder, Thresh could see wisps of smoke rising up from where they had been.

Even after they had passed the last ranks of the cutter colony they kept running. No one wanted to be close to flesh eating ants, let alone flesh eating ants _and _a forest fire. They ran and ran until their breaths came in gasps and their sides hurt and their legs felt like rubber.

Finally, they came to a stop, practically collapsing onto the ground. For a long while they just laid there and caught their breath.

Then, for some unexplained reason, as they caught their breath, they both started to giggle, then chuckle, then burst out in joyful laughter. The joy of being alive seemed to have overcome them. "Let's take a break," Kate said after re-catching her breath. Thresh nodded vigorously. So they did. They ate and drank a bit more than usual. Taking advantage of this brake, they also patched up their wounds. Surprisingly, they weren't too severe despite the fact that they had fought off nearly fifty chicka-chickas and then been pursued by a colony of ravenous cutters. Perhaps they did have a guardian angel after all.

Afterwards they got up and again set out on their route, although it would have to be detoured slightly because of the ants. This was fine by them though, for neither wanted to meet the cutters or the chicka-chickas again. Plus, smoke was now visibly rising up from the trees…

On the other side of the forest Kyra and Raphael were having better luck. Since meeting the two tributes, they hadn't met any other forms of troubles, and they had laid out a grand total of twenty-eight traps so far. They were completely unaware of how their two friends were faring.

In fact, they had just reached the stream and crossed it. Lying out two more traps on that side of the stream they then turned back around in the loop pattern and back across the stream. It took time to make the traps. Many involved making wooden stakes on the spot. One of their traps involved a snare that caught the foot of a victim and pulled them up about ten feet in the air, simultaneously making several wooden drop down, impaling them. At least their death was quick, if violent.

During their travels they had depleted their trap making supplies, so they would have to restock in the morning.

Several hours of travel passed by and as the daylight slowly faded away they started to keep their eyes peeled for a good stopping point. They did eventually find a tree with branches that branched out in a way that made a kind of seat – like the kind leopards could typically be seen resting in- that they could climb and sleep in. Climbing up higher than Kyra, Raphael took advantage of the position to get a look at where they were. From what he could see, they weren't yet to the middle of the arena. He conveyed this message to Kyra before dropping back down to a lower branch.

"Good night, well, relative to, you know," Kyra said somewhat less than cheerfully.

"Yeah, you too," Raphael said, feeling equally cheerful. He quickly surveyed the nearby branches for any particularly large bugs, and, finding none, he eased into sleep…

_Black tail flicked nonchalantly, fierce claws tapped the wooden arms of a chair, yellow eyes watched gleefully. Inside a bar he was, within the Battle Nexus. Everyone here wanted to see how the latest Champion was doing. His aggressor was no exception. Malacom had missed the very first part of the games, but he had later been caught up to date by the bartender._

_He was impressed. The turtle was doing better than he had expected. Then again, he was the Champion so it was to be expected. Though he still had to allow himself a chuckle. Those fools; the Elders. The murderer of two of their kings now had just slipped past under their noses. Their whiskers hadn't even twitched. Instead they had played right into his hands and fallen for his ruse. It was pathetic._

_Malacom watched with pleasure as the turtle made his first kills. He could tell from his age that he was nothing but a cub in the art of killing. It pleased him to see someone who supposed himself so innocent do something considered so heinous. Watching the boy give in to the emotions that lurked just below his surface gave him great satisfaction. Loving hate was in his nature, and he couldn't seem to get enough of it. Others called him insane, evil, the devil… he didn't care. Few could understand the excitement he got from the scent of freshly spilled blood._

_And he could see those emotions within him. His past had been inflicted with many outbursts of anger. The emotion lingered in his very scent. And hatred, too. It was harder to detect- more specified- but there, always there. His kind heart got in the way, though, and kept him from achieving his true potential as a killer. These games would change that, though._

_Soon, he would have to turn even against the companions that he had with him. The weak one and the rash one had already come close to perishing. He was surprised with the cunning of the weak one, Thrash, or whatever his name was. The boy had discovered the cutters' only weakness. Though, it had been rather unfortunate that his plan now had them on the run from a fire. Curiosity made him wonder if the Officials would do something about the fire, or let it burn the forest down. It would be harder to hide without the cover of the trees. More bloodshed would be the result. _

_Then that smart one… Kyra, yes… that was her name. She seemed to have a good head for planning. And, from what he could tell, she seemed to be rather attracted to the turtle. It amused him what one's heart will yearn for. To think, that so long ago the yearning for a certain lioness as his mate had begun his exile. The heart was cruel; love ever more so. _

_Although, grudgingly, his heart did still yearn for her. Yes, that fire had been an accident...kind of. Of course, no one would have ever believed him if he had said he had actually been trying to save her from the patrol of an enemy clan. Obviously, they would have asked him what he had been doing following her in the first place, and few would have believed that even then, when his body was still young and his mind immature and his heart madly in love that he had been going to beg her for forgiveness, his own emotions clouding his better judgment. The fire had simply been a way of covering all that had occurred up, in particular, his presence. Not that they would have given him time to explain himself, preferring to kill him before he disappeared again._

_Malacom jumped slightly as the bartender set his drink by his arm. Despite his self confidence, he couldn't shake off the instinctual fear that his enemies would find him, and any movement put him on alarm. Many Elders and their guards remained in the Nexus, doing investigations and such. Now would not be a good time to be spotted by one of them. Even now he kept the hood of his black cloak up, his face hidden by shadow._

_One thing that he was certain of: as soon as the Freedom Games were over, he was leaving this place…_

_

* * *

_

**Hmmm, it seems as though Malacom isn't quite done rubbing it in Raph's yet…**


	19. Chapter 19 Day Three

**Ahhh, Raph and Kyra spend some quality time together. You guys are going to hate me by the end of the games.**

* * *

Raphael woke up early in the morning. The day birds were just starting to awaken with their tweets, chirps, and whistles. There was a slight breeze in the branches and he welcomed it on his face. Glancing down, he could see that Kyra was still asleep. Although he knew they should probably get moving and get an early start, he really just wanted to relax for a moment.

It was so peaceful in the mornings. The quiet was calming. Creatures chirping happily from their unseen hideouts. Flowers starting to peek open to welcome the sunlight. And lovely pink birds with blue tipped wings, emitting cooing quietly from their bright orange beaks as they landed in the trees, their tunes entering his mind like a lullaby… what the shell?

Raphael jerked up from his doze, startling some of the closer birds. Rapidly he drew his sais as his eyes darted around from bird to bird. He quickly relaxed, realizing that the birds surrounding them were harmless fruit eaters… well, harmless in the sense they wouldn't hurt them, but they did have poison in their claws and in their feathers.

Raphael put his sais away slowly and settled back down to watch them with curiosity. The birds watched him with equal enthusiasm. They were pink morning sparrows. Mostly they sung out their tunes in early morning, earning their name. Although they were quite friendly and relaxed little birds, when you're out in an arena where people are trying to kill you, anything will look dangerous at first glance.

Their beaks were long, pointed, and the lower jaw was scooped slightly. Being fruit eaters, they were designed for stabbing into fruit and scooping out the delicious center of the plant.

He wondered why the birds were here… until he noticed the little clusters of small green fruits growing on the branches of the tree he was in. Raphael realized that they must be in one of their feeding trees. Unfortunately, the plants were naturally toxic to humans… and in turn, probably mutant turtles also. Thinking back to the book, he was pretty sure the birds shared some kind of particular symbiotic relationship with the tree. They were the only ones that could eat its fruit and spread the seeds, and they also ate bugs that ate its bark.

Looking down again at Kyra he considered awakening her so the birds could approach and eat, but was surprised to see that she was already awake. He opened his mouth to say something to her, but stopped. Watching her, he saw her pluck a small handful of fruit from a nearby cluster and tossed some of them onto the ground.

An eager bird flew down and quickly gobbled them up. Finishing it looked up hopefully for more. In response, Kyra tossed down some more. Two more birds joined the first. She continued throwing berries down until she had about fifteen of the sparrows eagerly awaiting the fruit. Some of them started to land on the branches around her.

Raphael watched this with curiosity and wonder as she mimicked their cooing noises. He hadn't known that she liked animals.

Kyra lay some of the fruit out on the branch close to her, and a bold little sparrow hopped close and gobbled them up. Another joined the first. Slowly, she put some fruit in her hand and held it out, inching it forward till it was resting on the tree branch's rough bark.

The bold bird looked at her cautiously. Then, it took a few timid steps forward, then a few more, and a few more until it was almost on her hand. Then rapidly grabbing a fruit it dashed away with its prize proudly. Raphael couldn't help but chuckle. Startled, Kyra looked up sharply.

"Oh, uh, I didn't realize that you were awake also," she said blushing when she saw it was him. _Did he just see that?_

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you," Raphael apologized. Raphael smiled. "So, I suppose you like birds," he said subtly.

Kyra blushed. _Dang, he did see that. He probably thinks I'm weird._

"That was pretty interesting. How'd you do that?" He asked slowly climbing down to a lower branch.

"I was just patient, and quiet," she said honestly. "They'll just come to you if they're hungry enough." _Did he actually seem interested?_

"I've never been very good with animals," Raphael confessed. "Well, we have a cat, but she's always been my brother, Mikey's cat." He watched the birds for a minute. "It's nice to know you at least can find some relief out here. I think it's tougher for me and the others. Everything out here seems deadly. Silence seems to be my only solace, and even then it's only for a short while."

Kyra listened intently with a studious look reflected in her eyes. "Perhaps that's a good thing. It'll keep you on your guard, even if it is painful," she said gently.

"Maybe," he muttered as he picked a few green fruits and tossed them onto the ground. He watched the birds as they fluttered around the fruit hungrily.

They were silent for a moment. Then Kyra spoke. "So… what's your brother like?" she asked tentatively.

He looked at her with surprise. "You mean Mikey?" She nodded. She noticed how the corners of his mouth twitched in a brief smile upon thinking about his brother.

"Where to start with Mikey… well, Mikey's… He's the biggest goof I've ever met. Annoying beyond belief, but sort of a good kind of pain in the neck. I guess he's creative, I mean, he's always talkin' about this or that. Gives my other brother Donny a real run for his money. Drives him near crazy. Lazy ass he's got, but he's faster than I'd care to admit. S'pose he has to be to keep from gettin' his shell kicked by the rest of us all the time. Always playing pranks on us and that sort of stuff. We still gotta love him though. He'd make our lives hell if we did otherwise."

"Sounds like you've got quite a brother," Kyra remarked.

"Yeah, he's something alright," Raphael admitted with a nod, holding out some fruit on his hand. A bird hopped forward and plucked it up with its beak.

They were both silent for a moment before Raphael remembered something. "You have a sister, don't you?" he asked. Kyra blinked at him with surprise. _He actually remembered that?_

"Yes… I do," she said slowly.

"What's she like?" Raphael asked.

"Not as outgoing as your brother sounds. She's more like me I suppose; quiet. Although she is really smart," Kyra elaborated.

"And?"

"And what?"

"What's her name?"

"Oh, right. It's Naomi," she said hastily as she blushed, feeling ridiculous over forgetting to mention her little sister's name. She tried to keep from smiling as he laughed a little. His laughter was somewhat strained, but it was the first laughter she had ever really heard him make.

A breeze sprung up just then, making the leaves tremble delicately. With it came a scent. Raphael lifted his head and sniff, his light mood being replaced by a serious one once more. He recognized what it was right away; smoke. Without a word to Kyra he got up and climbed up silently into the uppermost branches. Kyra watched him anxiously; she could smell the smoke too.

Getting as high as he could, Raphael strained his neck and did his best to peek over some taller trees. He didn't have to try very hard though. The dark smoke was clearly visible as it drifted over the tree tops, blown by the wind. Raphael couldn't be sure, but it looked like there was a big fire in that direction. Then an even more uneasy thought entered his mind; weren't Kate and Thresh in that direction?

"What do you see?" Kyra called up to him.

"There's a lot of smoke over to the west side of the arena," Raphael called down as he started back down. "I think there's a fairly big fire over in that direction."

"A fire? How would a fire have gotten started?" Kyra asked with alarm.

"I don't know. The forest foliage is pretty rich in flammable materials though with all the underbrush. Still, it must be feeding off of a very effective fuel source to have sprung up so quickly over night," Raphael said as he dropped down to the branch next to her once more.

"Do you think maybe a tribute started it?"

"They would have had to. There haven't been any storms to make lightning that could start a fire, and why would the Officials just start a fire at random?" he reasoned.

"Um, Raphael, aren't Kate and Thresh supposed to be over in that area?" Kyra asked worriedly.

"That's what I was thinking too. Don't worry too much though. I'm sure that they could have smelled the smoke and avoided the fire," Raphael reassured her.

"I suppose you're right. Should we go ahead and get started?"

Raphael nodded. "Yeah, we'd better go before it gets any later."

Dropping down out of the tree they stretched a moment before they got their packs and started moving again. As they moved through the foliage they would carefully grab handfuls of useful trap making materials and shove them into the slightly opened top pouches on their back packs to keep their supply levels high.

In the early morning hours, they lay down three more traps and heard one cannon shot fairly close by. Investigating it- just in case it was an opportunity to eliminate a few more tributes- they were surprised but satisfied to find that instead someone had fallen victim to one of their traps.

Raphael recognized the girl from District 8, though he didn't know her name. He tried not to meet her glassy eyed stare as he removed the small pack from her back and took the contents out. 3 packs of meat. No water. One knife. Even without the trap she obviously wouldn't have survived much longer without fluids. Kyra took the meat. Raph took the knife.

They continued moving forward. Around mid-day they stopped for a short meal before they continued. By now it was becoming rather routine for Raphael; step left, right, left, right, step over a log, go around a clump of trees, step left, right, lay down trap, left right, etc. He was almost anxious for the end of this route; when they could switch from strategically trap setting to an offensive maneuver of some kind.

It was about three in the afternoon when they reached the river again. The river looked different here. There was a strange stomach shaped bend in the river and the water was moving so slowly it was almost completely still, yet it was still fairly clear. Raphael and Kyra both immediately noticed the birds standing in the knee deep water.

They were tall, about six feet. Crane-like in form, they also resembled flamingoes in the color of their plumage except their feathers were so deep pink they were almost red. Although, their beaks were a strikingly bright yellow and long and pointed like a crane's.

The two of them eyes the birds with caution as all of the birds slowly raised their heads in their direction. There were thirty of them. They didn't seem too particularly dangerous. Nothing about them seemed that threatening. So, after sharing a brief word of confirmation they started moving towards the river.

Within ten feet of the river the birds became extremely restless. A bird slightly larger than the others strutted out boldly forward to block their path, ruffling up its feathers to make it look bigger. Several of the other birds moved forward also. Looking more closely, Raphael noticed that the biggest bird had an orange streak on both sides of its beak. The others that had moved forward also had the orange streak while the others without streaks held back. Raphael theorized that the ones with the orange streaks must be males, while the others were females. Half of them were males.

Although Kyra and Raphael had both stopped when the biggest bird strode out in front of them, the bird continued displaying. Its feathers were sleeker and shinier than the others as if he had groomed them daily for hours on end to please his mate with his nobly and well groomed feathers. It held its head high with pride and was obviously at the top of the pecking order in this flock. With its feathers ruffling and deep throated moan-like noises coming from its throat, it was also clear that it wanted them to go away.

Looking around uneasily, Raphael tried to figure out what about their presence had the birds so agitated. He thought maybe that the males were just highly protective of the females, but some of the females were puffing up also. There had to be another reason.

"Raph, look," Kyra said pointing to seemingly the feet of the female birds.

Studying the birds he realized that there were little hills poking out of the water. Not hills, small mounds of sticks, mud, and other debris. And on those little mounds were large white eggs; they were nests. With sudden understanding, Raphael realized that they had unintentionally stumbled into the birds' nesting grounds. No wonder they were so riled up; they were trying to protect their eggs.

"Kyra, why don't we just slowly back away and pretend this didn't happen?" Raphael suggested in a murmur.

"Agreed," she murmured back.

Slowly the two began backing away. However, the biggest bird seemed offended by this somehow, as if refusing his challenge had wounded his pride. Or their retreat had instilled a desire in him to chase them away permanently. The aggressive male flapped his wings and flew at them in a charge before stopping about eight feet in front of them, hissing and moaning his warnings. Both of them retreated rapidly at the bird's onslaught, and several of the other males seemed inspirited by his courageous endeavors to defend his nest, and some of them repeated his charge though they did not draw as close.

Kyra and Raphael continued to edge slowly back to the tree line as the bold bird made his advances toward them. Seeing that they were trying to escape into the trees, the valiant fellow seemed determined that they would learn their lesson about trespassing close to his family and home, and finally leaped at them in a real charge, no longer a mock charge as a display of strength.

Although Raphael was unwilling to harm this dedicated father-to-be, but being faced with a ten inch long beak, he had no choice but to fight or be skewered. Instead of drawing a weapon he moved to one side of the bird's beak and grabbed it as the bird jabbed at him before twisting its head and forcing it to the ground.

The bird let out a scream of fury and immediately began struggling. Although birds perhaps were not renowned for being the strongest animals in the animal kingdom, the strength this bird possessed astonished Raph. Its wings beat furiously against his chest, jarring him with every blow. The chest and neck muscles heaved as he tried to free his long neck from the turtle's grasp. Meanwhile, his long graceful legs tipped with talon-like claws kicked wildly, scratching Raphael several times on his left leg and side.

Witnessing their feathered chief in a fierce head lock and battling with fury, the other males flapped angrily to his assistance. Raphael looked up at the sound of the males screaming as a giant and lethal beak aimed for his chest. Releasing the chief bird, Raphael backed up rapidly, but he needn't have worried although the bird still would have injured him even then, for Kyra took out a knife and threw it into the bird's neck, severing its spine and killing it instantly before it could harm him.

The body fell mid-flight lifelessly to the ground, but was replaced by three live ones, including the chief bird who seemed even redder in his state of enragement.

Although his first survival instinct was to grab his sais, his own conscious revolted. Splinter's face flashed in his mind, reminding him of how his father had risked his life many times to house them, feed them, protect them, and raise them. He remembered how much he loved his father, how he felt protected by him. These birds were no different. Killing creatures carrying out such an act that Raphael himself felt was a justified one seemed even more revolting than killing other competitors. He did not draw his sais.

Instead, he fought the birds with his hands, doing his best not to kill any of them. Chief bird came at him the most violently, and Raphael was confronted with a master of the fowl-ish martial arts. He seemed to know just where to jab with his beak and just when to kick out with his feet or beat his wings. All of the other birds avoided Raphael. That target had been claimed by their chief, and it was his fight to finish, not theirs. This meant of course, that Kyra was now being targeted by thirteen six foot tall, extremely angry, and very strong birds at once.

If the birds had a sense of honor, perhaps it was expressed in the fact that they never attacked her all at once, preferring to strike at her in organized trios so they did not accidentally injure each other, so Kyra was able to dodge them, though it was still a highly dangerous situation. One error in her footing and she would be stabbed to death.

Raphael saw her situation and tried to come to her aid, but the chief bird flew in front of him, blocking his path to her. Although Raphael was bitter about it, it looked like he would have to fight this foe before he could help Kyra.

Backing up a step Raphael lowered into a fighting stance and prepared for another one of the bird's advances. The chief bird seemed satisfied that Raphael was finally deciding to fight back and jumped at him with a bird-like battle cry. Raphael jumped back when the bird stabbed at him and then placed a hand on the bird's beak and shoved its head down. Stumbling forward the chief bird quickly recovered and beat his wings fiercely; hitting Raphael in the face and making him back up to avoid them.

Bringing his head back up, the chief bird seemed to think over his attack strategy a little more before attacking again. Raphael thought he was just going into another charge, but was surprised when he instead jumped up high in front of him and lashed out with his claws. Raphael also noticed for the first time wicked looking spurs on his heels.

Raphael tried to back up out of the way, but he was only fast enough to keep the bird's claws from raking his eyes out and took them full in the chest instead. Chief bird kicked out his legs, sending Raphael sprawling backwards before flapping his wings a few times in the air to rebalance himself, and landing lightly back onto the ground.

The breath knocked out of his lungs, it took Raphael a minute to recover. He happened to glance over at Kyra and a jolt of alarm went through him that made his heart leap into his throat as he saw one of the birds stab her arm. He heard her cry out.

He looked back at the chief bird a moment before he made a reckless dash for Kyra. He felt with his instincts rather than saw chief bird come flapping after him. Raphael had almost made it to Kyra when he felt two strong legs kick him hard in the shell. He twisted around as he fell so he landed on his shell instead… and with chief bird on his chest.

With a cry of triumph, the chief bird stabbed at his chest, where his heart was beating wildly with fear and exhilaration. Driven almost by instincts, Raphael brought his right forearm across his body and slammed it into the deadly beak. His blow wasn't strong enough to deflect it completely, but at least it didn't plunge into his heart. Instead, it sunk into his left shoulder.

Raphael shouted with pain before grabbing one of his sais with his right hand. Without hesitating, Raphael stabbed upward into the chief bird's body before bringing his legs up to his chest and kicking up with them. The chief bird screeched in pain and surprise as he slammed into the ground on his back. Raphael scrambled to his feet and ran to Kyra's aid, blood streaming from his shoulder; adrenaline masking most of the pain.

The birds squawked with anger as Raphael leaped up and jumped onto the back of one of them, making it crumple to the ground. He grabbed one of the birds by the head and dragged it to the ground before jumping onto its body- probably breaking several delicate bones- and then kicked one in the side, making it crash into another bird before they both ended up on the ground.

Realizing that Raphael had come to relieve her of her difficult situation, Kyra grabbed her weapons; two knives. She stabbed one of the birds in the chest and twisted the handle before pulling it back out. Then she slashed another bird's neck.

Raphael cut one of the birds in the side before stabbing its wing. Kyra stabbed another bird in the leg, making it crumple to the ground. Then she got stabbed herself in the left side. Biting her lip from pain, she sliced down with her knife and cut off the bird's head.

Raphael felt claws swiping at his carapace, but he felt nothing. His shell was too hard. Twisting around, his sai slashed horizontally across the front of one bird.

Finally, after several more blows were delivered, all of the birds had been defeated. Kyra and Raphael panted heavily, gripping their most sever wounds with a hand. Kyra's side wound was painful and bleeding, while Raphael's shoulder was starting to sting.

Raphael's eyes looked around at the carnage they had just created. Eleven of the original fifteen birds were dead. The ones that remained alive were wounded. One was on the ground in a nesting position, its right wing hanging limply as he panted from pain. The second was standing, but could not put much weight on his bleeding left leg and he wheezed as though he had broken ribs. The third had several cuts along his body and blood trickled down from a stab in his side and a cut above his left eye. Then finally, the fourth one.

Chief bird was standing, but his legs trembled beneath him. Blood ran down his sleek feathers from the wound Raphael had inflicted. His leg had been sliced by Kyra's knife and blood trickled down it steadily. He tried to hold his head high and regain his noble appearance even in defeat, but he could only get it halfway up before his injuring hurt him too much. Despite this and his situation, he still limped with his pride nowhere diminished until he had placed himself once more between them and the river where the females watched on fearfully with small clucking sounds of worry and alarm.

All three did nothing but stare at each other for a moment. Then Kyra raised her knife. Raphael put a hand on her arm to stop her.

"Don't," he said. His eyes met her and she understood his request. She glanced back at chief bird before putting her weapons away.

Slowly, they walked away from the river with no resistance. Just before returning back into the trees, Raphael glanced over his shoulder and at chief bird. The bird was watching them with something like confusion at the sight of their retreat, though there was something akin to relief reflected in his eyes, but more prideful of course. Turning back around he stepped under the cover of the leaves.

They dragged their feet rather than walked through the dense leaves and branches, oblivious to the blooming flowers and flying creatures. Stumbling along, Raphael leaned against a tree to catch his breath. His shoulder felt like it was on fire.

"Kyra, we should stop and treat our injuries," he gasped through clenched teeth. She nodded, unable to speak, her face pale. He noticed her silence.

"Are you alright?" Raphael asked.

She glanced down at her side and withdrew her blood soaked fingers from over the injury. Raphael saw it and his eyes widened.

"Come on, I'll patch that up," he said quickly. The amount of blood scared him. She didn't say anything, but she stepped over closer to him and knelt stiffly. He took a seat next to her.

He took the back pack off and took out the medical aid pack. Then he glanced at her face for a moment before he slowly lifted up her shirt to see the wound.

It looked bad. The injury itself was a round hole about two inches wide. Knowing how long the birds' beaks were, it probably went deeper than that. Blood was oozing from it slowly. The wound was sickening to him; this gruesome injury could kill his friend.

"I'm going to have to clean this out," Raphael alerted her. "It's going to sting." She nodded.

Raphael opened the kit and found the bottle with disinfectant liquid. He took out a small cloth from the kit and unscrewed the cap of the bottle before pouring some on the cloth.

He looked up at Kyra one last time before he pressed it against her wound. She inhaled sharply and he felt her muscles tense beneath his hand. Recalling the words Splinter always had said to him when treating his injuries, Raphael said to her quietly, "Just keep breathing." She nodded briefly and drew in a strained breath before doing her best to let it out slowly instead of in a gasp.

After holding the cloth there a minute, Raphael removed it and dabbed it with disinfectant again before gently wiping off the area around her injury. Kyra seemed on the verge of tears the whole time, but didn't make a single sound. Raphael repeated cleaning her injury out several more times before he stopped.

"I don't think it's getting any cleaner. I'll have to bandage it now," Raphael told her. He got a small bandage patch and placed it on the injury. Grabbing a roll of bandages from the kit, he unwrapped some of it and then drawing closer to her he started to wrap it around her waist. Securing it, he pulled her shirt back down for her.

"Thank you," she said quietly.

"You're welcome," he answered. He glanced at her arm. "Now I have to do your shoulder."

Since it wasn't wise to hinder her movement with a sling, Raphael just cleaned it out and wrapped some bandages around it.

"Your turn," she said when he had finished with her shoulder. Raphael glanced at his shoulder. The bleeding seemed to have slowed and it didn't hurt as much as before, but he let her bandage it without a complaint. Then Kyra looked at where chief bird's claws had torn open his shirt when he had been kicked. She noticed there was no blood.

"Did you get wounded there?" she asked.

"No," Raphael said automatically.

Raphael didn't have to look to know the answer was no. His tough plastron had taken the full force of the attack. The worst it had really done to him was knock the breath of him.

Kyra however studied his chest with scrutiny. "What happened?" she asked.

"That big bird kicked me. My shell protected me though," he answered.

"You must feel lucky to have built in armor," she replied.

"It does come in handy."

Once their main injuries were treated, they helped each other reach and treat the minor ones. When they were finished, Raphael stood and rolled his shoulders to loosen them up.

"Do you feel up to moving on?" he asked Kyra, his eyes lingering where her injury was.

"I'm alright," she said standing up also, noticing his look.

She didn't seem to be in too much pain, so Raphael nodded. "Then let's get moving, before anything else decides to try and kill us." …

* * *

**I bet you're all wondering why I hate the color pink so much. Just wait till I get to purple :P LOL, just kidding. Though I will accept any burners who decide to chew me out for making a crescendo-ing Kyra X Raphael and then killing Kyra and/or Raphael. And the best part is, since this story is a tragedy, you won't know till the end who all dies :D Oh and technically it WAS a tragedy since I recently change the genre settings after musing about it. Now it is adventure and drama.**


	20. Chapter 20

**I have not died nor had any health problems preventing me from writing unless writer's block can be considered a disease. :) I CAN BELIEVE IT'S TAKEN ME THREE MONTHS TO START AND FINISH THIS CHAPTER! I'll try not to leave all you good people hanging like this again, but I'm not dumb enough to make any promises ;D**

* * *

Kate awoke under the most unpleasant circumstances; she was hardly able to breathe. Frantically she inhaled sharply and automatically began coughing on the smoke. Although still groggy from sleep, it at some point clicked in her mind that the fire they had set was very close.

"Thresh- cough, cough- we need to Get Out Of Here," she coughed out the last four words as she blinked rapidly, smoke stinging her eyes. Shaking his arm, he woke up in roughly the same manner as her.

"I can't believe we didn't smell it and wake up earlier," he wheezed as he quickly stood up, looking about at the surrounding haze of smoke in a disoriented manner.

"I guess we were really tired," Kate said with a shrug, "Now let's just get moving."

"We seem to be doing a lot of that lately," Thresh muttered as he grabbed his bag. Breakfast would have to wait until after they could breathe easy.

But where to? With smoke twisting between the trees like serpentine ghosts in all directions they certainly couldn't see their way to safety… unless they went up.

"Thresh, can you climb that tree there?" Kate asked pointing to a sturdy looking tree.

An unsure look entered his eyes. "I don't know…" he said.

"Come one, you're lighter than me, which means you can get higher," she insisted.

"Yeah, higher," he muttered nervously looking up at the tree that seemed very ominous. He still wasn't comfortable with climbing. Kate sighed. She'd have to use the forceful method from the looks of it.

"Just get your bony ass up that tree," she ordered. The forceful tone of her voice made Thresh forget his discomfort as he scrambled up the tree.

The first twenty feet up or so he had trouble since he was blinking constantly because the smoke stung his eyes, but after that it started to clear up.

"So?" she called up to him.

"We should head that way, away from the fire," Thresh said, pointing.

"Alright, climb down and let's get moving fast," she answered.

Thresh looked down and gulped. The tree seemed so much higher now. Carefully, with tentative steps, he began working his way down. Every small step felt like an eternity, and the more he took the more he was sure he was almost at the bottom.

"Hurry up," Kate called impatiently.

"I am hurrying," he answered. Then he looked down. Oh… maybe, ten feet of progress? Thresh sighed.

By the time Thresh did finally get down several minutes later, Kate had kicked back against a tree and tapped out a rhythm on a root as she waited. When he did arrive on the ground, she calmly got up and walked up to him.

"Okay, next time I'll climb," she said. He nodded vigorously as he panted.

Without wasting another moment, they headed off in the designated direction away from the fire. At first they tried running. Progress was slow, however, because while the forest had been difficult to navigate when they could see, it was even more difficult now that they couldn't. Even Kate was stumbling about. Their pace eventually slowed to a laborious walk.

Trees disappeared in the fog and reappeared, appearing to writhe behind the wispy smoke. Vines suddenly became visible and tried to ensnare them before being lost again. Branches tangled in their hair yet could hardly be seen themselves. A slow steady breeze continued to push the smoke along in pursuit of them. The smoke itself attempted to suffocate them.

It did not matter what their pace was, the fire continued after them. Not wanting to stop, Kate and Thresh continued moving forward. They paused for a moment to take a sip of water and pull out some jerky, but ate it as they kept moving. Silence seemed so firmly molded into their surroundings that Thresh wondered if they were the only two living things there. Perhaps everything else had fled on quicker feet, or worse, burned to ashes, nothing but food for the smoking predator pursuing them.

Glancing at the branches, Kate noticed that the wind never stilled or even slowed in such an unnatural manner, which was odd for the first two days had not been breezy at all. She became embittered when she wondered to herself if the Officials were the cause of it and if they wanted to see them die. _If they do, _she thought, _they're going to be disappointed._ Quickening her pace she grabbed Thresh's arm to pull him with her.

Not even the two tributes could know the full extent of the damage the fire was creating. Already it had spread out across the arena destroying vast amounts of cover and even some of their traps. The smoke could be seen from anywhere, and smelled almost everywhere. While the flames acted as a deterant to the dangerous local wildlife, it was like honey to a bee to the other tributes. Tributes fled from the flames, became confused, vulnerable. It was the perfect opportunity to seek and kill…

* * *

The golden Cornucopia rested in the warm sun, glistening brightly. The smell of the flowers did not enter it for there were mint like plants that countered the toxic poisons resting around it in large clumps, creating a safe haven for the tributes within it.

Caiman sat motionlessly facing the smoke, a concentrated look in his eyes. Andos and Jared exchanged glances repeatedly as they watched him. Kita, Erma, Merran, and Siena were restless and eager to move. Harlon alone remained calm and seemingly uncaring. Caiman had been sitting like that for too long now. He had a plan, and they wanted to hear it. Siena was the first to make a move.

"Spit it out, Caiman. What's your plan?" she said eagerly.

The large man ignored her for a moment before he shifted slightly. "That fire… was made by a tribute," he said slowly.

"No way," she snorted.

His head turned sharply and he fixed the District 2 tribute with a hard stare. She matched his gaze, not at all intimidated by him. There was a long moment of tension before either spoke again.

"After that tribute made that fire," he continued, "they would have to flee from it or perish. They would either come in this direction or go to the other side of the arena, something I doubt they would do. Other tributes will also be forced to move because of the fire. Which means, that if we head in that direction we might encounter them."

"So why don't we start moving already?" Kita asked impatiently.

"I think you are forgetting something important. If we head in that direction we too will be closer to the fire," Harlon said.

"So? We- well, at least I'm- not stupid. I don't think anyone here would be foolish enough to get too close to the fire. Do _you_?" Siena asked. Harlon did not answer. Siena smirked.

"Good. Then it's settled. Let's move," she said lightly.

With an irritated growl, Caiman rose to his feet. He stomped over to Siena and stopped in front of her very closely, and looked down at her harshly. His form was much larger than hers and made her five-foot-two-inch-frame seem very small. Siena's ferocity was not diminished in the least and her eyes met his icily.

"You do not lead us. You do not decide what we do," he retorted severely.

"Neither do you," she said coolly, "I don't care how big your muscles are. You don't scare me."

Caiman looked ready to kill her and explode at the same time as his face became crimson. Siena discreetly pulled a knife out of her belt behind her back. Never once did the confidence in her posture waver. Sensing the oncoming disaster, Harlon slowly moved forward with his hands up and in front of him as he carefully stepped between the two.

"Perhaps we should take a vote," delicately, Harlon tried to defuse the situation.

The intense hostility between the two tributes was so strong one could swim in it. Caiman still appeared ready to shove Harlon aside and take a go at the ready Siena. Siena considered Harlon's words, but still was unwilling to be the first to leave the standoff. Harlon picked up on this immediately.

"Are there any other suggestions as to what to do?" he said slowly. Only silence followed.

"All those in favor of heading towards the fire," Harlon slowly raised his hand. Siena's hand- the one not holding a knife- shot right up. Five hands raised leaving only Caiman. The final tribute grudgingly raised his hand also. Siena smirked.

"Very well. We shall head towards the fire," Harlon said.

His actions caused Caiman and Siena to finally step away from each other. Siena put her knife away. Caiman leaned slightly against the curved inner wall of the Cornucopia with arms crossed. Harlon and the others relaxed.

"Shall we… begin?" Harlon asked.

* * *

As the day progressed, Raphael and Kyra became increasingly worried. By periodically checking on the smoke, it was clear that the fire was becoming large at an alarming rate. Worse yet, they didn't know where exactly Kate and Thresh were. All they could tell for sure was that they were alive, but Raphael dreaded the sounds of cannon shot.

Their wounds had slowed them for a little while, but after they had begun to feel better and the pain had been replaced simply with stiffness. Occasionally they would stop to rest and to check on Kyra's abdomen wound. It was on one of these such occasions that a worried conversation began. Kyra pulled up her shirt slightly so Raphael could check the bandage. After examining it for a second and touching it gently, he was satisfied and sat back.

"Raphael," Kyra began quietly, "I think we should go look for Kate and Thresh."

Raphael nodded. "I agree. I've been thinking the same thing."

"The only problem- and it's quite a big one- is that we don't know exactly where they are. We can estimate their location from our own progress, but beyond that, finding them will just be luck," Kyra said.

Raphael thought silently. "We don't have any other choice, really, aside from continuing. But with a fire like that, it's bound to attract some attention, and they're going to need some extra hands if the worse happens."

Kyra nodded. "Okay."

Without another word, Raphael and Kyra rose. After thinking for a moment, they decided where they should start their search and began walking…

* * *

Kate breathed in deep breathes as she trotted along. Still holding Thresh's arm, she helped pull him along on his tired legs. Finally they were making some progress. Walking would not be fast enough to outpace the fire. Running could result in tripping. Anything in between would be good, but noisy. By sacrificing silence, they were now getting farther away.

After a long while of walking, they had finally come up with a solid way to get away from the fire. By trotting or slowly jogging they could move along faster until they tired in the dense undergrowth and slowed to a walk before catching their breaths and starting to trot or jog again. By keeping her arm firmly on Thresh's, Kate was able to make sure they both stayed together. If Thresh got tired, Kate would feel it through her arm and know when to stop. It was such a good plan that it made Kate wonder why they hadn't done it before. Thresh suggested it was because she was too stubborn, and she slapped the back of his head. The smoke had begun to thin, meaning they were making progress.

There were two slight problems, however. The first was the noise they made. Anyone would easily be able to locate them. They sounded like two draft horses walking on bubble wrap as they crunched branches and leaves, tore through bushes, and hacked away tree branches. Secondly, it took more energy to go faster in the difficult terrain, and they eventually began needing to stop more frequently. Still, it was better than burning or dying of smoke inhalation.

"How much longer do you think we'll need to keep this pace for?" Thresh asked. He was imitating her deep breathing, but he still had sweat trickling down his face.

"As long as it takes," Kate replied.

"Gee that was helpful," Thresh answered sarcastically.

Kate shrugged. "It's the truth."

Kate stepped on a branch and it made a particularly loud snap. Thresh winced.

"You know I really hope nobody hears us," Thresh said.

"Oh I'm sure they do. Whether they approach us or not is up to them, but unless they're deaf, they definitely hear us," Kate answered nonchalantly.

"How can you be so calm?" he asked with exasperation.

"Please, we defeated chicka-chickas, a colony of cutters, and we're outrunning a rainforest fire. I think we're just about set to handle anything these games throw at us," Kate said with confidence.

Thresh studied her for a moment. "I can't decide if you're serious or not," he said finally. Kate just chuckled.

Neither of them could know just how wrong she was…

* * *

Caiman walked forward on silent feet with Jared to his right. To their right farther away were Siena and Harlon. Then there were Andos and Erma. Kita and Merran were the final pair. A shuffling of leaves, quiet but steady could be heard. The noises ahead of them were unmistakable. There was a tribute fleeing from the fire.

Spreading out they began to circle their target. The noise stopped suddenly and they all froze. Then it started again. Caiman and Jared could hear it was heading in their direction. Caiman readied his ax and Jared pulled his bow string back. A large blur suddenly launched itself from the bushes in front of them. Caiman swung and Jared released his arrow simultaneously. The large buck let out a squeak before collapsing on its side, a wound in its neck and an arrow in its chest.

Both of them froze, looked at the buck, then looked at each other. Caiman let out a frustrated huff and through his ax into a nearby tree. A light, easy flitting form that was Siena dashed over to them, not at all hampered by the forest, followed by the slightly more cautious Harlon.

"What happened? Where's the-" she stopped when she caught sight of the buck. Looking at the arrow and neck wounds she glanced around at Jared's bow and Caimon's ax, thrown in a fit of rage, and pieced it together. She doubled over as she burst into laughter.

"A deer? You guys killed a deer? How pathetic," she laughed hysterically.

"You thought it was a tribute too," Caiman snarled. Jared shared a similarly disgruntled expression.

"I might have, but how would you if I didn't? I didn't say anything," she teased him.

By now the others had made their way to the fallen buck and watched the unfolding scene.

Caiman walked over to the tree and pulled out the ax before turning and throwing it at her.

"HEY!" she shouted angrily as she rolled out of the way. Merran who was standing behind her scrambled out of the way.

Regaining her footing, Siena bared her teeth at Caiman and drew out a large knife. Caiman pulled a second ax from off his back and spread his legs apart, balancing on the balls of his feet. Siena crouched down and got prepared to attack. Caiman and Siena leaped forward at the same time. Siena threw her knife and pulled out a second at the same time. Caiman dodged and swung his ax. Siena ducked and tried to sweep his feet out from under him. He jumped and her legs went under him without making him fall.

"ENOUGH!" Harlon roared, causing both combatants to freeze. Suddenly Erma and Andos had knives to Caiman and Siena's throats.

"What the hell are you doing?" Siena growled.

"Release me!" Caiman commanded.

Neither had seen the signal that Harlon had given to Erma and Andos to move forward and subdue them.

"Give me one good reason why they shouldn't just kill both of you now," Harlon asked smoothly.

Caiman's eyes narrowed, but neither he nor Siena could give a reason. In a competition to kill, there were no good reasons.

"I see," Harlon said with a nod. "Then I'll give both of you one." He walked forward and grabbed both by the shoulder and pulled their faces down by his. "We're being watched," he whispered, "And that little stunt the two of you just pulled gave us the perfect cover. Listen carefully. There are two of them and they are behind me to my right. I have already made the others aware. When I tell you to, both of you are going to run directly towards them following me, Erma, Kita, and Jared will go to the right and Merran and Andos will go to the left. Ready?"

"Yes," Caiman and Siena answered. Harlon nodded.

"Alright… now!"

* * *

Kate and Thresh had been traveling for a while long enough that they both were drenched with sweat when things took a turn for the worse. They had been moving along at a walk when they heard the shouts and clangs of weapons. Both tributes had froze.

"What was that?" Thresh whispered.

"Tributes from the sounds of it," Kate whispered back.

"Do you think… Raph and Kyra…?"

"I don't know," Kate answered.

"Should we check?"

"It couldn't hurt," Kate responded.

The pair crept forward on panther's feet, hardly even daring to breathe. They drew close enough to the noises to make out the shapes through the trees. Eight tributes, including Caiman. There was no doubt; these were the Careers. Caiman and a female tribute were fighting viciously with axes and knives. The fierceness of the smaller girl made even Kate shiver. She was easily matching the much larger Caiman.

"We should go now," Thresh whispered urgently.

Kate nodded in agreement. She move her foot a tiny bit in getting prepared to turn around and to their petrifying fear a snap was heard under her foot. Both of them duck low behind the bushes. Kate could see through a small spot with few leaves at the Careers. It seemed there was only one Career looking in their direction, a slim framed silver haired boy. She could see the markings around his eyes were in a spiral sort of pattern.

Neither Kate nor Thresh even dared to breathe while he looked in their direction. His silver, almost white eyes scanned the bushes with predator like thoroughness, never wavering. Then his eyes drifted to Kate's and terror filled her heart. Could he make her out from his distance? Were her eyes enough to give them away? Kate didn't move or take her eyes away from him, fearing it would cause an involuntary motion from her.

His own eyes could not see hers, but he could sense someone was there, hidden. Kate could tell what kind of person he was from the way he was moving his eyes, his body. Slow, calculative, silent, taking in the minutia of the landscape, always staying to the side out of the action; underestimated. It made her fear him. That cunning was more frightening than even the great muscles of Caiman. Her heart felt like it was trying to pound its way out of her ribcage and escape, run away. This tribute made her afraid, and she hated it.

He finally looked away, but Kate remained frozen. Thresh could move no better. Suddenly the silver haired one shouted "Enough!" at the two fighting. Two others grabbed them from behind and held them with knives. "What the hell are you doing?", "Release me!" came from the two being held. "Give me one good reason why they shouldn't just kill both of you now," the cunning boy said. Neither of the trapped said anything. "I see. Then I'll give both of you one." Then he moved forward and said something to both Caiman and the girl that Kate and Thresh couldn't hear.

"Kate, we should go now," Thresh breathed, barely audible.

The words had barely left his lips when the cunning boy said, "Now!" Suddenly all of them whirled around and started running towards Kate and Thresh. Neither hesitated, jumping up and running like crazy. Where they had sounded like draft horses on bubble wrap before, now they sounded like draft horses running around in a kitchen full of pots and pans with so much snaps, cracks, and shifting of leaves.

Quickly glancing behind her, Kate could see that the small girl who had been fighting with Caiman was quickly catching up to them followed by the silver haired tribute and then Caiman. Kate grabbed Thresh's arm and ran even faster.

* * *

Raphael and Kyra had been making good, quick progress. They were moving slightly more towards the fire and they could smell the smoke clearly as it cut through the air. There seemed to be less bird song in the areas with more smoke that were closer to the fire. If their logic had been correct, they would be coming to the area where Kate and Thresh should have been very soon.

The foliage seemed a little thicker in this area, though it was navigable. One thing Raphael noticed was that it was harder to keep quiet.

Kyra's hand suddenly fell on his arm, stopping him. Raphael turned to see her standing alert, listening.

"What is it?" he asked quietly.

"Do you hear that?" she murmured.

Raphael paused and listened hard. Yes, he could hear it. It sounded like cracking, like sticks, and shuffling as though something was pushing branches to the side. It was quite faint, but it sounded like someone was running in their direction. He looked at Kyra with alarm.

"Should we hide?" Raphael whispered urgently.

"We should wait in the trees for them to pass. It may be Kate or Thresh," Kyra said.

Raphael nodded. The two looked quickly around for suitable trees. Finding what they were looking for, they each climbed a different tree and readied their bows, looking down and around for any sign of the person or persons. They didn't have to wait long.

The noise had become very close when Raphael could suddenly make out Kate and Thresh running through the bushes below them. _They're okay!_ He thought with relief, until he saw who was chasing them. He could see a girl who he automatically recognized to be a Career. The rest of the pack couldn't be too far behind.

The girl following them pulled a knife out of her belt as she ran, easily gaining on the two. Raphael didn't hesitate in releasing his arrow. She saw it however, and arched her body as she twisted around and out of the way of the deadly strike. Landing easily as though nothing had just happened, she looked up and found Raphael immediately. Kyra released her arrow then but the girl moved out of harm's way again.

Suddenly there were two more Careers that joined her, and Raphael realized how bad of a position he and Kyra were in. If they stayed where they were, they would become trapped like rats in their trees.

"Kyra, to the ground. Now," he said to her.

Both of them rapidly dropped to the ground. The girl with the knife went for Kyra first, throwing her weapon at her. Kyra ducked behind the tree before releasing another arrow at her. Then she and Raphael started running after Kate and Thresh.

* * *

Thresh felt like his lungs were being burned up by the forest fire they hurt so badly. His breaths were pathetic wheezes more than anything else. He couldn't believe he was still running and keeping up with Kate. He risked a glance behind them and then did a double take. Raphael and Kyra were behind them!

"Kate, Kate look!" Thresh said.

Kate looked behind her and a brief moment of relief passed through her. They were altogether again. Then she realized they were still outnumbered by the Careers. Uh-oh. Behind them Kate could still see the fierce girl.

"Look out!"Raphael yelled with panic.

Kate looked to her right in time to see a girl with gold hair throwing a huge knife at Thresh. She grabbed his back and pulled him down to the ground with her. The knife went over their heads. Kate looked up and then covered her face as the golden haired girl raised a sword to kill her. An arrow went through her and a cannon shot was fired. Kate looked around but Raphael was already grabbing her and pulling her to her feet. Kyra pulled Thresh to his.

This cost them precious seconds. They got up only to find that Caiman, the silver haired boy, and two others were now upon them. The remaining three weren't far behind them. Raphael could see that they would soon be surrounded and forced into a fight, and most likely killed. He couldn't let that happen, he couldn't die. There was only one thing they could do. If they all ran together they would just be cornered again. But if they…

"Everybody split up!" he commanded. Kyra, Kate and Thresh paused, looking at him fearfully for a moment, before taking off in different directions. Raphael ran.

* * *

Siena watched the strange turtle tribute named Raphael kill Erma with an arrow, just before she killed one of the tributes on the ground. Then Raphael and the girl with him grabbed the two on the ground and pulled them to their feet. She smiled and almost laughed. They had just cost themselves their lives taking so much time. They should have just let Erma kill them. Suddenly the turtle shouted, "Everybody split up!"

Siena watched the four split in four directions. Her eyes remained locked on the back of the turtle. She kept running after him. Harlon saw the turtle and remembered his score, and recognized him as the most dangerous and the one who needed to be killed quickly. He followed the turtle. Caiman saw Raphael and remembered with bitterness their humiliating encounter in training. The reptile wouldn't get away with that. With clenched teeth, he took off after Raphael. Seeing that the turtle was covered, Jared and Andos went after the girl with arrows. Merran went after the first girl and Kita went after the small boy.

* * *

Raphael glanced behind him and received a jolt when he saw the knife throwing girl, a silver haired boy, and Caiman all following him. Looking ahead of him he frantically tried to figure out what to do. He seriously doubted he could out run them or outpace them. But _what to do?_

He looked around in a panic as he ran for something he could use to his advantage. Scanning the ground he found nothing. Raphael looked to the trees, but couldn't see anything. Would he really have to turn around and fight them head on? No wait! What was that? There was something in a large tree, slightly to itself. It looked like… a bee nest. It was a large, bulbous nest hanging off a branch not too far up the tree. If he climbed up, he could knock it down and create panic while he escaped. But what if he got stung? Raphael decided he would be dead anyway if he did nothing. He went for the tree.

Leaping up onto a very low but sturdy branch, Raphael began to climb up. He could see the hive didn't seem active and feared for a moment that it had been abandoned. Then he saw a bee and was relieved. And then his breath caught. The bee was nearly eight inches long. He knew from training that it was a very dangerous type. A single sting would cause massive pain, vomiting, and even hallucinations. Even a few more than that and you risked death. Raphael decided to be extra careful.

He had almost reached the nest when the whistling of air alerted him to the arrow being fired at him. Ducking just in time to prevent an arrow going through his neck, Raphael looked down to find the knife girl had pulled out a bow now. Raphael climbed faster.

Finally the nest was in reach. Raphael took a sword off his back to cut the nest loose. All of a sudden a bee came out of the nest and at Raphael. He swung just as the bee landed on his arm and pierced through his skin with its stinger, releasing its pernicious cocktail of toxins into his bloodstream. The bee pulled away, leaving behind its stinger as was its way and went off to die, leaving Raphael staring at the singer in his arms, the pounding of his heart suddenly so much clearer to him as it began to increase its tempo.

Raphael would not have even noticed that the nest had gone crashing to the ground if the knife girl hadn't screamed followed shortly by the other two. He looked down to see them running around crazily as the enraged bees placed the blame of their fallen nest on the three on the ground. Only one bee had found the real culprit, but its mark had been sound.

With heavy breathing, Raphael began a staggering decent down the tree, his head swimming, the world spinning. A misstep; he crashed to the hard ground many feet below, sending a shock through him and knocking him breathless. He crawled to the trunk and shakily regained his footing before moving unsteadily forward.

His eyes widened suddenly. Pain which had been slowly creeping up on him suddenly hit him and he was walking in a sea of flames. The fire! He was in the fire! Yet, he did not burn. He walked through them and they died away and he could see the trees again.

Caiman looked down at him with a twisted smile. The Careers. They had found him. The silver haired boy and the knife girl laughed and the others surrounded him. None of them were hurt. How had they recovered from the bees so quickly? And then they were swirling away as he stumbled forward and fell, tumbling down the slope of the arena, gravity pulling him against his will.

And then Raphael fell hard, his injured arm hurting badly. He looked around wildly, everything colorful and swirling together like a big kaleidoscope. Mousers! Mousers! They were everywhere!

And there was Shredder. He said something and Raphael smiled. His voice… he couldn't hear the words but his voice sounded funny. He could almost laugh. Oh wait, he was laughing… wait, why was he laughing? Had Mikey just told a joke?

The Shredder was saying something again, and then he laughed. He must have gotten the joke. Raphael laughed with him though he still didn't get the joke. And then a mouser bit his face off and he blacked out.

* * *

**In case you couldn't tell, Raphael was hallucinating ;) I thought it would add an interesting twist to involve the opposing Career side. Also, mild though very unrevealing spoiler, one of the Careers will at some point go head to head with Raphael. If you wish to sway my decision on who it should be, you may take your pick and say so in a review because I love reviews and I want to please my readers with the most wanted Career fighting Raphael. Again, the still living Careers are; Caiman, Siena, Harlon, Jared, Andos, Merran, and Kita. Feedback will be very greatly accepted.**


	21. Chapter 21 Day Six

**Did anyone know that mizzle is actually a word? Apparently, it is somewhere between a mist or a drizzle. Mist+Drizzle=Mizzle. I'm smart.**

* * *

…_And then a mouser bit his face off and he blacked out…_

_Three days later…_

Raphael's ascent from unconsciousness was slow and unwilling, like trying to spread honey, only his was not sweet. Somewhere, seemingly far away, he could hear Shredder laughing at him. Cruel laughter, pointing out how weak he was right now. Raphael wanted to jump up and punch him but he couldn't find him and he couldn't get up. If he would just be quiet.

Up above him he could see a small light. That must be the way out. The closer he got though the more pain he felt. Stubborn though he was, he kept pushing. Now he could taste the bitter bile in his mouth and the taste caused his stomach to lurch again, like it had been doing for however long. He didn't know how long it had been. A few hours? A day? A week? He needed to find out. He opened his eyes but kept them mostly closed as the light made them sting badly.

Awake, he could feel all that was physical. His brain was cake batter getting whipped around and around by a mixer. His arm, previously injured by the pink birds, hurt more now than it had before. His throat felt like a whole desert had moved in and he could hardly swallow without gagging. He felt sticky all over from sweat. Worst though, was his stomach, which both filled him with gnawing, furious hunger, and had a billion butterflies within it all trying to fight their way out.

Weakly Raphael tried to sit up. The butterflies didn't like it and shot up. Raphael leaned to the side and vomited, though nothing but bile came up out of his empty stomach. When he finished he leaned back against the ground panting. Letting his stomach resettle for a moment, he tried again.

While his stomach still flip flopped, he didn't vomit, and he was able sit up this time. He looked around and tried to figure out where he was. All he could determine was that he was still alive, and he was still in the forest. Trying to be a little more thorough, Raphael looked around with more scrutinizing attention. This time he saw the broken branches and slightly crumpled path leading up the slope. No wait, leading down the slope. It ended where he was now. He had fallen down.

Raphael forced his mind to remember what had happened. He could remember nightmares, laughing, mousers, and… and… Careers. That was right. They had been chasing him. What had he done? Bees. Right, the nest, and a bee… stung him. That was why he was so ill. He needed to get moving, before they came back!

He reached for a nearby root to help get himself to his feet. His legs didn't like the excursion and screamed in protest. Ignoring the pain, he shakily rose to his feet and leaned against the tree. He clamped a hand across his mouth and took deep breaths when his mid section lurched again.

The pack with his supplies was still on his back. Raphael slid it off his arm and onto the ground. Opening it he took his water canteen and opened it before turning it up and drinking feverishly. All thoughts of preserving his supplies were gone from his mind as he emptied the canteen. Tossing it aside he leaned his back against the tree for a moment before digging out jerky from his backpack. He ate a pack before being satisfied. He sat against the base of the tree and tried to organize his thoughts.

_I'm alone, Kate, Kyra, Thresh, and I all split up, and I got stung by a bee and got sick, _he thought to himself. _I don't know what happened to them, they could be anywhere, and I need to find them. _

Raphael looked around and decided where to look for his friends first. He should head back up the hill to where he saw them last. Eating and drinking had made him feel better and he felt ready to start moving. He grabbed his pack and slowly put it on. He looked down at the empty canteen he had thrown to the side. He felt like he was missing something…

A jolt of realization hit him like a slap to the face. _He had just drunk all of his water!_ Panic surged through him as he realized how stupid he had been. He had no water. At the most, he had about three days now to find them. Raphael started moving.

Progress up hill was excruciatingly slow. His knees wobbled constantly and he needed to rest regularly. The poison had still not worked its way out of his system. Raphael wiped his brow with his arm.

At one point where he stopped to rest, Raphael heard a noise. Listening carefully, he realized that it was the gurgle of water. _The river must be close,_ Raphael thought. _Maybe the terrain will be easier there. _He got up and approached the sound of the moving water. It took him a long time, but he finally reached the bank. The water looked very inviting, though Raphael knew he could not drink it. He looked at it long fully for a moment before he started along up stream beside it. It was easier to travel right along the water.

Raphael was not the only one who had come up with the same idea.

* * *

Kate plodded along next to the water grumbling at herself. "Split up, he said, oh yes," she muttered bitterly, "split up so we can all become lost. We could have taken the Careers."

Angrily she kicked a pebble with her foot. After splitting up, Kate had run hard and fast, Merran hot on her heals. She had outsmarted the Career however. While running by a tree she placed her hand on it and swung around to the other side of it and through a knife at the approaching Merran. The girl had moved out of the path of the weapon but Kate had thrown another and killed her.

Later she heard another cannon shot, but she didn't know who had died until that night, where it had been revealed a guy named Andos had been killed. Kate figured it had been Kyra who had killed him since she recalled the boy following her along with another. Apparently he had survived and Kyra had escaped. Raphael and Thresh apparently were also alright.

Now their problem was that they were all separated. There was strength in numbers, and right now they didn't have very good numbers. There were still five Careers alive. Kate really wished that they had come up with some kind of regrouping strategy. Her only idea was that they had thought of following the river where it was easier to travel. If they didn't regroup soon…

Kate kicked another pebble.

* * *

Caiman sat by himself, miserable and feeling very ill. Three large, angry red bumps resided on his swollen and painful left arm. Laying a short distance from him was Harlon, who had mostly recovered from his two stings, but was still feeling quite ill. Siena was the worst with five stings and still hadn't woken up. Kita and Jared sat motionlessly watching the three injured.

After giving up on their pursuits of their own tributes, Kita and Jared had come back and looked around for the others. Jared knew Andos was dead, killed by the tribute they had been following. Neither knew where Merran was, but a cannon shot had been heard and they decided neither Caiman, Siena, or Harlon would have died so easily, so they searched for the three instead, waiting for night fall to confirm that Merran was dead. They had found the three struggling in the woods, stung by giant gold wasps. As luck would have it, the Cornucopia had had many kinds of medicine as well as a vile specifically for the venom of the bees.

The effectiveness of the bee venom was determined by the number of stings and the height and weight of the victim. Caiman was huge so he was less affected, even with three stings. Harlon was about 5 feet ten inches tall and one hundred forty pounds, giving him a good chance with only two stings. Siena however, had been very much in danger. She was small and had received a large amount of stings. So, half the vile was given to the Siena and a fourth each to the boys. Caiman and Harlon had responded well while Siena had yet to wake up, even though Kita and Jared had kept the three well cared for, determined to keep their strength in numbers. If any more of them died, they would all be in danger.

Jared checked the location of the sun. It was almost 12:00 p.m. Not good. He glanced in the direction of the river. It wasn't far away, though it wasn't exactly close either. He motioned to Kita.

"Kita, it's almost twelve," he said. She also looked in the direction of the river with worry.

"We're too close for my liking," she answered.

"We should get moving before the mist starts," Jared said. Kita nodded. They looked at Caiman and Harlon.

"It's almost time for the mist," Jared said.

Harlon nodded and stood. Caiman also rose. Jared lifted Siena up and over his shoulder. Without another word they all started away from the river.

Since the first day in the arena, the dangers that lurked within it had been making themselves known. One in particular gave even the Careers a certain sense of discomfort. On the first day at 12:00 p.m., a strange mist had risen from the lake and the river that ran into it. It seemed like any ordinary mist in appearance, but all could sense that it was far different. The simple fact that it appeared at midday made it very strange. In addition, in exactly one hour it would disappear, every single day. It spread from the water and out and around the shore. If one listened carefully, they could hear the whispers coming from the fog.

None of the Careers had approached the mist to discover what it was. The fear of the unknown was greater even than the fear of what was known. All that they could tell for sure was that it was something to be avoided…

* * *

It began at twelve. Raphael had been keeping up his normal pace alongside the river when the mist started to form. At first he had thought nothing of it. But then as it began to develop more, he began to hear the voices. They were mere whispers, like nothing more than the wind brushing through the leaves, but they sent a chill through him. One of the whispers stood out to him; _Raphael._

Seeing no enemy, Raphael continued cautiously along the river, alert and ready to defend himself. Then as the mist grew thicker and engulfed him and his surroundings, he became aware of the flickers of movements. He'd catch one just out of the corner of his eye and when he turned to look nothing would be there. Eerie silence would be broken suddenly by a voice coming close by his ear. Raphael would jerk away but only the mist would be there.

Then, the mist completed its materialization. Raphael stumbled backward when suddenly a shining blue-ish tendril of mist came close by him. He could see some kind of spirit in the mist before the spirit melted away into the rest of the mist. Suddenly he felt something beckoning him to follow it. Resisting he turned away, determined not to fall for whatever trick this fog possessed. The scream that came from behind him made him whirl back around.

"Mikey!" he shouted fearfully, recognizing the shrill cry of his brother. He ran after the cry, splashing into the river.

Another scream to his left made him stop suddenly. "Don!" Raphael called, panic rising in his chest. He had never heard his brother scream like that before.

Then a scream that struck terror in him. Leonardo, from his right. _Leo doesn't scream,_ Raphael thought, heart pounding, _because Leo doesn't get scared like that._

Laughter came from behind him, sending a chill through him. _Shredder._

He whirled around and found the armored villain with Splinter on his knees in front of him. A hand was placed on the back of his neck, the one with the prongs on his shoulder.

"Get your hands off of him!" Raphael snarled, drawing his sais and baring his teeth fiercely.

Shredder looked up at him and then slid his pronged hand down to Splinter's neck, drawing a little blood. Raphael suddenly was afraid for his father's life.

"No! Don't hurt him!" Raphael panicked.

Shredder laughed at his request. "I'm afraid you're too late, turtle."

Raphael watched the hand slice across the rat's throat, blood flowing down his robe, into the water, turning it crimson.

"Truly pathetic," Shredder said mockingly as he let the dead master fall into the water.

"No, no…no," Raphael panted, putting his hands on his head as tried to resist. "This isn't happening, this is only an illusion," he said quietly to himself. "Splinter's safe, nothing's happened to him."

"Oh no, this is very real," a whisper, smooth like steel and cold as ice, behind him, in his ear.

Raphael turned his head around. There Shredder stood. Raphael didn't have time to dodge the punch that smashed him in the face and sent him sprawling into the water on his hands and knees, knocking his sais out of his hands. He tried to get up, but Shredder was already on him, pushing his face down into the water. Bubbles escaped his lips as he struggled in vain. Just when his air was spent the pressure was suddenly gone and he resurfaced, sputtering and coughing as he choked on water and tried to breathe.

"I can't have you die yet. Where's the fun in that?" Shredder mocked him.

Raphael looked up and his eyes widened. Leonardo was behind Shredder, on his knees, his hands tied behind his back. He looked defeated, weak, like Raphael had never seen him before. His head was down and he could see his shoulders heaving as he breathed.

"Leo," Raphael whispered with dread.

Shredder saw his misery and chuckled darkly. Then he walked over to Leonardo and grabbed the tails of his bandana, pulled his head up, and then slashed the side of his face with the prongs. Leonardo let out a small grunt of pain as the blood started to run. The man then kicked Leonardo in the stomach sending him rolling. Not stopping, Shredder approached Leonardo again. He started kicking him over and over again in the stomach.

"Stop it!" Raphael shouted running forward at his enemy. Suddenly two arms were grabbing him from behind, holding him back.

"Enjoy the show, freak."

"Hun," Raphael spat hatefully, "Let me go, blockhead."

Only a laugh was his response. It made him feel so… weak. Raphael tried to struggle, but Hun's hold was sound. Weakness… he hated it. He couldn't escape, or run, or help his brother. He was pathetic and defeated. It made him afraid.

Shredder picked up his brother by the throat and drove his prongs into his stomach. Leonardo's eyes widened and then he struggled to breath before coughing up blood. He stabbed him again, in the lungs, and then again in the chest.

"Stop hurting him," Raphael shouted, almost pleading. Begging… he couldn't stand being so weak, unable to protect.

"Don't worry, I'll put him out of his misery soon," Shredder assured him as he dropped Leo to the ground.

"NO!" Raphael shouted frantically fighting against Hun, trying to free himself and save his brother.

Then the Shredder grabbed Leonardo by the shoulder and held him upright as he drew his left hand back. And then he sliced down across his chest, lacerating his heart.

"No…no…no…," Raphael repeated, watching his brother die. _This isn't happening,_ he thought, _this can't be happening. My family is alright, they aren't even in the games. Shredder is dead. We beat Hun. This is all an illusion. _

"The pain isn't an illusion," Shredder whispered, suddenly in front of him, sliding his prongs along Raphael's neck. Raphael felt the metal slice open his skin, the sting as his own blood was spilled.

"I am very much real," he whispered, "whether you like it or not." Raphael squeezed his eyes shut, willing for it all to go away.

"Why do you look away from your family?" Shredder taunted. Raphael heard metal sink into flesh and opened his eyes to see Donatello, a sword through his abdomen, held by the Shredder.

"Don," Raphael breathed. The sword was pulled out of him and Shredder slashed across his chest, and Donatello sank to the ground, dead also. Unable to bare it, Raphael closed his eyes again.

"Raph."

His eyes opened wide when he heard the whimper. Now Mikey was on the ground, beaten and bloody.

"Mikey, no, not him," Raphael begged. "Don't kill my little brother."

"But then it wouldn't be fair if I didn't kill him too, now would it?" Shredder said maliciously.

He lifted Michelangelo up and threw him across the ground. Shredder walked up to him again and crouched beside him, and then started stabbing him with his prongs, over and over again. Mikey started screaming.

"Mikey," Raphael said quietly, his eyes becoming watery as his brother was stabbed. His screams slowly died away. Raphael blinked away the tears, and saw the blood all over his brother, his brother's blood.

Then suddenly everything began to fade away. Shredder, his brother, even Hun. Suddenly he was all alone. And then the whispers started again, but this time he recognized the voices. They were his brothers' and his father's. Their shadowy forms drifted around him like ghosts and Raphael recoiled from them.

"_You shouldn't have let us die, Raph_," Donatello whispered.

"_I'm very disappointed with you, Raphael_," Splinter whispered.

"_Why didn't you save me, Raph_?" Mikey whispered.

"_You can't even protect your family. You will never be the leader_," Leonardo whispered.

"_Raph_…"

"_Raph_…"

"_Raphael_…"

"SHUT UP!" Raphael screamed curling up onto the ground. They continued to swarm around him whispering their accusations.

_This is not reality, _Raphael thought desperately, trying to stay in control, _this is the arena playing tricks on me. They can't be dead. I would feel it if they were dead. _Realization suddenly came to him and with it an idea. _Yes… I would feel it. I would know. If I can prove that they're alive… maybe this will go away._

Raphael uncurled himself and sat in the lotus position as he began deep breathing. He started to clear his mind, pushing away the voices swirling around him, focusing on Splinter's energy. Splinter would be the best one to connect with. He would know right away what Raphael was doing. As he continued to concentrate he could feel the spirits trying to fight him back into their presence and he resisted as they entered his mind and taunted him. He focused on Splinter. Raphael could feel their connection getting stronger, and then he could feel his father, just out of his reach. He just needed him to finish the connection, to respond to his call for help…

* * *

The Watching Room was deathly quiet, all eyes on the screen. It was focused on Raphael, the most interesting tribute of the moment. Splinter, Leonardo, Donatello, and Michelangelo studied him as they watched themselves on the screen, being killed by the Shredder. Finally Mikey broke the silence.

"How can we be in there… if we're out here?" he asked breaking the crushing silence.

"It's the mist. There's something about it that's causing the illusions of us… and Shredder," Donatello answered.

"What do you think it is?" Mikey asked.

"Mizzle sprites."

The foursome turned to see the woman who had answered them. She had dark blue hair and eyes, spot-splash markings on her cheeks, and a pretty though solemn face. She was sitting on one of the couches and had a small girl resembling her on either side of her.

"What did you say?" Mikey asked curiously.

"Mizzle sprites. The mist… it's mizzle sprites," she said again. "They're evil spirits that assemble in large numbers in water. Mostly they don't attack physically, although they can do that also. Usually they invade the mind and conjure up an individual's worst fears and memories, making them act like they wouldn't normally. Often sailors on ships encounter them right after storms around District 3," she paused for a moment, "… A colony of mizzle sprites killed my husband three years ago."

"We're sorry for your loss," Splinter said sympathetically.

"It's one of the risks of working on the sea," she answered quietly.

Leonardo who had been studying her closely spoke. "Forgive me if I'm incorrect but… you resemble the tribute Kate. Are you a relative of hers?" he inquired.

"I am her mother," the woman confirmed. "My name Niena. This is Lydia-"Niena gestured to the small girl on her left, "and this is Melody."

Niena studied the turtles now. "You must be adopted," she said, looking at Splinter. He nodded.

"Your son is very brave. He may win," Niena said both trying to be encouraging and sad. Splinter understood why.

"Anything can happen. Perhaps Kate will win," Splinter said gently. Niena nodded silently.

For a moment Splinter suddenly became dizzy and then it passed. "Are you alright?" Niena asked taking notice.

"I'm fine," he said shaking his head slightly.

"Hey guys, what's Raph doing?" Mikey asked. They all turned back to the screen. Raphael was sitting with legs crossed seemingly in meditation.

"Why is he sitting like that, Master Splinter?" Donatello asked. The rat, however, was staring the screen with his brow furrowed, a hand on his chin as he concentrated. Suddenly he quickly sat down on the ground and set himself in the same position as Raphael.

"What are you doing?" Niena asked.

"He is trying to connect with me spiritually," he said closing his eyes.

"That is even possible?" she asked wide eyed, but Splinter was already concentrating, away from them.

"With the proper training and a lot of it," Leonardo answered.

"I have never heard of anyone using this against a mizzle sprite before," Niena said.

"There's a first for everything," Donatello answered.

* * *

Raphael probed around, far away. He could feel Splinter was very close, just out of reach. _Please… father… hear me…_ he called. He kept trying, keeping his breathing and focus steady. Occasionally one of the spirits would shove into his mind and try to distract him and so his progress was slowed, though he maintained his focus amiably. He did not get a response at first, but suddenly he could feel his sensei's presence there, with him, away from him, somewhere beyond either the arena or any place physical.

_Splinter, are you there?_

_I can hear you my son._

Raphael almost shouted with joy, but didn't for it would have broken the connection he just made. He calmed down quickly and focused on his sensei.

_Master Splinter, are you and my brothers okay?_

_We are all alright, Raphael. All that you saw were illusions, created by mizzle sprites, _Splinter assured him.

_Mizzle sprites?_ Raphael asked with confusion.

_They are water spirits that cause you to see your worst fears. It appears they are residing in the river, _Splinter explained.

_So I should get away from the river?_

_Yes._

_But how can I do that if I can't get away from the mist?_

_Do not worry. I will stay with you until it leaves. I do not think it will stay for long._

_Thank you, _Raphael thought gratefully.

Suddenly a mizzle sprite flashed the image of his dead sensei in his mind and his focus wavered for a moment. Splinter felt this.

_Raphael, are you alright?_

_Yeah… just another illusion. _

_Listen to me, Raphael. I am going to help you try to defend yourself from these illusions. Together we will focus on your happy memories with your brothers and me all together. I think it may drive them out of your mind if they have nothing to work with. _

_Okay, so what do I do?_

_Start thinking of something that made you laugh or happy. Keep thinking of many memories. I will start adding my own memories. _

Raphael thought hard. He remembered Mikey's birthday party one year when they were younger, about twelve. The whole week before Mikey had been playing pranks on him and he wanted to get even so he shoved Mikey's face in the cake. His little brother had jumped up in protest at first, but then he started laughing along with the rest of them. They ended up having a cake fight, all four of them.

Then Splinter added his memory of being curled up with his sons in their den just a short while after they had become mutated. It was… peaceful. Raphael didn't know it, but he smiled. They were so cute then.

Riding his motorcycle for the first time was another happy memory of his. At the time he couldn't believe he had such an awesome brother in Donatello. He loved riding that bike.

He also recalled his late night excursions. Going out to defeat the local criminal population to keep the innocent safe made him feel good. He liked being one of the 'good guys' even if the people he saved didn't think he was. There was freedom in his actions, adrenaline, and the slight fear of the unexpected gave him a crazy kind of excitement.

Splinter then showed him his memory of them laughing and joking around in the lair, playing soccer. They had set up the goals on either sides with safety cones. No goalies, just two on two. Raphael and Leonardo had been on a team with each other, a somewhat rare moment of them peaceably working together. Raphael watched the memory-game from the side lines, enjoying the way they just had fun playing. Mikey kept on goofing around, sliding to get the ball, trapping it then keeping it just out of Raphael's reach. And then Leonardo came from behind and got the ball. Raphael on the side lines laughed at the where'd-you-come-from expression on Mikey's face.

Raphael wasn't aware of it, but revisiting so many happy memories was working against the mizzle sprites. The barrier of good memories was keeping them from entering his mind, and even his body. His three brothers, Niena, and the other spectators watched with wonderment as the blue colored spirits tried to enter Raphael's body but instead bounced off of him. Adding even more to their wonder was the smile on Raphael's face.

"It's working," Mikey whispered.

"I have never seen anything like this before," Niena said quietly. "Your brother… is very strong."

* * *

The blue sprite looked at the green turtle tiredly, and with slight boredom. Whenever it tried to get in into the turtle it just bounced back. Nothing it did worked. It gave a ghostly sigh and turned away. The fun had run out.

The spirit beside it sighed also. This was truly boring. What was the point of continuing if nothing happened? They started to drift away back into the water, but suddenly an eager sprite came rushing from farther up the river and they circled around it with energy, feeding off of its excitement. In their whispers it told them rapidly of another farther up the river.

Both of the bored sprites gave quiets yips of excitement. The fun wasn't over yet. Giggling they sped away up the river, taking the mist quickly with them.

_

* * *

_

_Master Splinter, I think they're gone, _Raphael thought, unable to feel the presence of the sprites anymore.

_I agree. I cannot feel their presence. I think… this is where I leave you now._

_Please, don't go yet, _Raphael pleaded. Splinter sensed his thoughts quickly.

_Raphael, you need to focus on surviving, and coming back to us. I cannot help you with that. This was… pleasant, speaking with you. However, it will be much more pleasant when you are back in my arms, _Splinter said gently.

Raphael did not respond for a long while. Splinter waited patiently. _I understand. Master Splinter… I really do love you. I'm sorry I don't say that… as often as I should. _

_I know you do, and I love you also. I must go now._

_Okay. Good bye… father._

_Be strong my son. _

Raphael opened his eyes and found himself alone. The mist was starting to dissipate rapidly around him. He heard no whispers.

For a moment Raphael closed his eyes and tried to focus on what his father's presence had been like; memorizing it, cherishing it, clinging to it. Then he rose to his feet in the river. He was wet now for he had sat in the river, unable to get to the riverside, but he didn't care. While being tormented by the sprites he had worked up quite a sweat and the water cooled him even in the rainforest heat.

Looking around Raphael noticed the mist seemed to be heading up river. This conflicted with his initial plan of heading up hill in the direction he had seen his friends scatter in. He weighed the pros and cons of continuing to head up hill for a moment, and then decided that the risks were worth it. Raphael continued up the slope.

* * *

Splinter opened his eyes and found his sons and most everyone in the room looking at him. His tail twisted with embarrassment at so much attention for a moment before he rose from the floor and sat down on one of the couches. Most of the eyes looked away from him, but a few remained, his sons and their new acquaintances.

"So… Raph's okay?" Mikey asked finally with concern.

Splinter nodded. "He is for now. The spirits have left him."

Mikey breathed a sigh of relief and the others also visibly relaxed.

"Where do you think the mizzle sprites went? They certainly didn't disappear. Instead they headed up river," Donatello said thoughtfully.

Splinter shrugged, distractedly. "Perhaps we will find out later."

"Is something troubling you, Master Splinter?" Leonardo asked catching on.

"Do not worry about it, Leonardo. I just need… a moment to think," he said rising. Splinter exited the room, leaving his sons slightly bewildered and worried.

Splinter walked down the hallway to the room he and the turtles had been given for their stay here. He quickly opened the door and closed it behind him, his breathing already rapid. He sat down in his meditating position, trying to calm himself, but he could not.

His head dipped forward as sobs started to rack his body and tears spilled from his eyes dripping down onto his robe. Nothing could remove from his mind Raphael's face, or his presence, which had been so close and so strong, or the memory of watching him be so horribly tortured by his own worst fears and enemies. For the first time since had learned his son would be facing death, Splinter could not hold his own emotions down. He wept for Raphael.

* * *

"Do you think Master Splinter was really bothered by that?" Mikey asked with concern after their master left the room.

"I think that he's going through more than any of us can really understand right now," Donatello answered.

"I wish there was something we could do to help him," Mikey said.

"I think the only thing that will help him now is getting Raphael back," Donatello answered him as he placed a hand on his shoulder.

They heard a gasp behind them. Turning they found Niena with a hand over her mouth, her face pale.

"Niena, what's wrong?" Leonardo asked.

"My girl… they're after her… they're after Kate," she said, somewhere between a whisper and a sob.

The three turtles looked to the screen where the camera angle had changed. Now it was focused on Kate, and it was clear the mist had found a new target.

* * *

Kate looked around suspiciously at the cloaking mist that had surrounded her. Her eyes scanned warily, trying to locate the beings that kept moving out of her line of view. She slowly took out a spear, ready to defend herself against any enemy.

Suddenly three blue tendrils of mist came charging at her rapidly from out of nowhere. She tried to strike them but her weapon went right through them. They slammed into her knocking her off her feet and into the river. Kate heard them giggling as she tumbled into the water.

Quickly Kate crawled to her feet and readied herself to fight them. One came speeding at her and she tried to punch it, but again she went through it and it sent her backwards. She landed on her back hard in the water, soaking herself. Being known for persistency, Kate got up yet again, now quite irritated at getting wet.

"_Why do you fight?"_

Kate froze when she heard the whisper. "Mom?" she said quietly, recognizing the familiar voice.

She squinted into the mist, straining to see the dark shadow that seemed to be her mother. Then the figure moved closer and Kate could see that it was indeed her mother and her two little sisters. "Mom!" she started excitedly, but stopped abruptly and stepped back when she saw them clearly.

Without a doubt, it was her family in front of her that much she was sure of. However, there was something very much wrong. They all wore long dark blue cloaks that were tattered and torn from use. Her mother and sisters were very sickly looking, their faces pale, cheeks sunken in. The shoulders of her youngest sister Melody seemed very narrow, even compared to the narrow shoulders of the others.

"Mom, what happened to you?" Kate whispered. "Why are you so sick?"

Her mother smiled. "_Kate dear, don't you remember? You did this_."

"What?" Kate said startled. "I didn't do this! I never would do that to any of you!"

"_But you did, Kate_," the ghostly Niena said, "_You never came back. We all starved. You didn't help us. You killed us._"

"No!" Kate whimpered shaking her head hard. "I'm still here. The games are still going, I'm alive, I can come back still."

Her mother sadly shook her head. "_No, you already died, Kate. You didn't win. We were left behind, and we died without you_." She stepped closer, closer.

"No…," Kate started to cry. "I'm going to come back, I'll win, we'll get out of here, please don't say that."

"_You know what you'll have do don't you_?" the ghost Niena whispered coming close to Kate's ear, placing her cold hands on her shoulders.

"Wh-what?" Kate asked startled.

"_You'll have to __**kill**__ them_," she said simply. "_You'll have to kill them all_."

"Kill them?" Kate said, looking up at them.

"_Kill them_," her mother repeated.

She touched the water with a finger and the ripples spread out and forms started appearing in the water. Looking down as they came into focus, Kate saw all of the living tributes.

"_Kill all of them_," she repeated again.

"_Kill… kill… kill_," the ghostly Lydia and Melody started whispering in unison.

Kate looked down at the faces of the Careers, her hatred for them growing. They were keeping her away from her mother and sisters! They all were. Even them… those three. Kate looked at the faces of Kyra, Thresh and Raphael. Thresh… he wasn't so dangerous. Kyra, she was tough, but she didn't have much endurance, not like she did. But Raphael…

"_Kill… kill… kill_," all three of them whispered. "_Kill_…"

* * *

Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Donatello sat watching Niena in silence as tears silently trickled down her face. Little Melody and Lydia watched their mother silently. Splinter had not yet returned.

"I never would have asked her to do that," Niena said shaking her head. "Not like that. I know she's supposed to kill, but I have never encouraged it. Life is too precious. I learned that with her father."

"What's she talking about? I mean, your mizzle sprite-ghost-thingy," Mikey tried to explain, "How would Kate dying… kill you?"

Niena was silent for a minute, gathering her thoughts.

"Before Kate's father died," she began, "he was our main care provider. I received an injury and had to retire from being on the boats," as she said this she pulled up her pant leg, revealing several long and ugly scars ripping up her leg, "so I could not provide nearly as much money as him. When Kate started working on the boats, she gained in skill also and brought money, though not as much as him, for she was just beginning."

"And then after he died, we lost our support. We got food from the money he provided, and clothes, housing, heat… without him, it was as if a rug had been pulled out from under us. Kate suddenly found herself our main source of income when she was thirteen. In a sense, she became the head of the household then.

Everything she did could make the difference between us starving or going to bed fed. If she became injured, she could not work on the ships, and we would go hungry. If she didn't work her very best on the boats, she would be paid less, and we would all suffer from it. Sometimes she would spend hours after work casting off into the sea, fishing for our next meal.

There was little I could do to help her in this. I wove many baskets, blankets, and cleaned houses and everything I could to get paid or get food. However, I was largely hindered by the limp created by my injury and the pain that came with it. Kate was forced to grow up fast and smart to care for us, and she did it willingly."

"So if she doesn't come back… you would…," Mikey's voice trailed off.

Niena nodded. "Yes. We would starve, or at the very least, we would struggle, never knowing when our next meals would be. At least until Lydia turned twelve, but that is still six years away until she is old enough to work on the boats."

"She really loves you all," Donatello said softly.

"She does," Niena said quietly.

Suddenly the door opened and the turtles turned to see Splinter enter. He walked over and took a seat beside them silently. They noticed the redness around his eyes.

"Are you okay, Master Splinter," Mikey asked caringly.

"I am," he answered, offering nothing more.

Once again everyone fell silent, a dark seemingly hovering over them raining down grief, regret, loss, and longing. As Mikey watched the screen silently, watching Kate rise to her feet, a new, dangerous look in her eyes, he wondered if it was possible if the mizzle sprites were in the room with them. _Well one thing I can tell for sure,_ he thought to himself, _Raph's going to have to watch his back twice as well now._ The mizzle sprites drifted away from Kate, smiling, their work done. Watching this dangerous new Kate, Mikey could feel his heart rate increase and his heart drop from fear. _I've got a bad feeling about this…_

_

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**I wasn't really sure on how to finish this chapter, so I hope I did alright. Also, one of our dearly beloved four will be parting with us soon. Everybody shed a tear ;_; In other news, for those of you following along with my other stories, I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while, I'm about half way done with chapters for two of them and I have no inspiration for Donny's Girl. This story's kind of been my writing hot spot at the moment. **


	22. Chapter 22 When Instincts Reign

**I know I haven't been around for a while. Very naughty of me ;P. Say, has anyone ever noticed, that no matter how many times the turtles should die, are trapped, or cornered, or supposedly defeated, or seperated, they always manage to survive and end up back together again? They certainly have turtle luck, no?**

* * *

TFG Ch 22

As luck had always seemed to follow the turtles even more so than ill-fated situations, it likewise seemed to follow Raphael and those closest to him even in their unluckiest of times. Moreover, it was so, through a grand stroke of luck that all four members of Raphael's team developed the same idea, and converged upon the same spot.

The first two to meet late in the afternoon were Kyra and Thresh. Kyra had been prowling silently like a sleek jungle cat while Thresh had been like the flighty rabbit, always alert, senses heightened, ready to flee at the tiniest crack of a twig. So ready were the two for the appearance of another that it was strange they never heard the other coming, except perhaps the fact their heightened awareness of their own noises provided ample cover. As luck would seem to have it, they met face to face while sliding through the foliage.

Their greeting was less than harmonious, for each was so startled by the sudden appearance of the other that instinct prevailed over common sense and each sought to strike and kill the other in an involuntary motion of knives. After their initial exchange, which was less than courteous, both froze unharmed and stared for a moment before their tense muscles relaxed and they shared a unanimous sigh of relief.

"You're alive," Kyra breathed thankfully.

"You seem alive too," Thresh commented.

Together they laughed in relief. It was a short, nervous sound however, for the looming fear of impending Careers kept their voices low.

"I suppose you haven't seen Kate or Raph, have you?" Thresh said. Kyra shook her head in response. "No, but if we just keep moving, we might find them."

"How did you get away from the Careers?" Thresh asked.

"I killed one that was chasing me with my arrows and caused the other to flee when I fired a few more at him," Kyra said. "How'd you get away?"

"I, um, I ran really fast," Thresh said rather embarrassed at Kyra's bold methods of getting away from the Careers and his lack, expecting a witty comment, which was typical of Kate. To his relief, Kyra merely shrugged. "Whatever works? Come on, let's get moving." Without another word, both continued on their quest to find the others and reunite their team. Elsewhere, dangerous things were unfolding.

Siena had finally awoken and was able to sit up; however, she was still very weak and was unable to get up. Always the thinker, Harlon was a quick healer and was already clear minded enough to be formulating plans. Finally, Caiman was feeling the best, and the better he felt, the worse his mood became. Feeling irritable and ill to begin with, his irritability had increased three fold, anger and resentment of Raphael building up in an emotional knotted up ball in his stomach that could only inevitably be unknotted by tasting, seeing, and feeling the blood gushing out of his severed jugular. He paced furiously for no particular reason at all, imagining all the ways he could kill the shelled abomination.

"I will kill him," he muttered to no one but himself, "I will kill him." Caiman glanced again at the weak Siena, silently cursing her and all her ancestors for the rashness she had inherited, which had resulted in this whole mess (as he typically blamed her for their troubles). In her weakened state she was useless, and the only reason he did not kill her was Harlon.

Caiman would never admit he was afraid of Harlon, for indeed, he was not, but his feelings about him easily rivaled trepidation. While Caiman was easily the leader, for with his size and strength he could bully the others into following, Harlon possessed qualities that made his muscles shrivel up in an instant.

His crafts in the art of survival included a deadly arsenal of cunning, swiftness, level-headedness, silent expectedness, and, surprisingly, fairness. His mind was devious and able to form plans Caiman could not. While he always moved with a controlled cautiousness, it was rapid and never off balanced. Never had he raised his voice without a reason and never acted rashly. Silent always was he, yet everyone seemed to suddenly know where to go and what to do under his skillful hand of guidance in a fleeting moment and he never struck in punishment, but always left the past exactly where it belonged; in the past. The others fell easily and willingly behind Harlon, and while he made no move to try for leadership against Caiman, in a moment he could have the whole group against the large man. This silent duel for leadership crept upon them both like a stroke, and it was inevitable that their try for mastery over the other would eventually come.

That moment was not yet come however, and Caiman would not try for it while they were both still weakened and the others were around. He would take care of him when they were alone and the numbers of the group had dwindled for he had need for his mind yet. Caiman was not patient though, and in his frustration of doing nothing to remedy any of his troubles he growled aloud like some beast.

"I hate it, that we can do nothing but sit here and wait!" he snarled fiercely, again to no one, but to relieve his rage.

"No one's holding you back. You can go explore on your own," Siena said mildly.

Hearing her twisted the knot even more and he started a lung at her but stopped short when he saw Harlon rise also. He resumed his pacing, and his thinking aloud.

"We need a weapon, something we can use that will kill them all for sure," he said quickly. "They're too quick and intelligent. A trap, maybe. Just anything that kills them!"

"Well we can't exactly just wish it can we?" Siena said sarcastically. She was also feeling in an improved mood.

Caiman gritted his teeth and ignored her. She was right, they could not. Still, it made him feel better to think they could, even for a moment.

"We will simply have to wait until we are all well rested," Harlon said calmly.

"Yeah? And how long will that be?" Caiman snapped.

"At least two days," Harlon said batting away his anger with hardly a blink.

Caiman let out one final miserable growl before sitting down on a fallen tree with an exasperated huff. Silence fell onto their small camp. About three minutes passed before Kita suddenly looked up with a start. "What's that?" she said quickly. All rose to look. At first it looked like the sky, where a small creature with flapping wings was approaching them.

Recognition of the creature was instantaneous. The creature was a Delivery Wyvern, a tiny but strong species of wyvern used to bring items to tributes from their sponsors. Eagerness spread like wildfire and they waited impatiently for it to make its descent into reach. Each wondered if it was for them.

Being the tallest, Caiman was the first to be able to reach it and he snatched it out of the wyvern's claws earning him an angry screech before the little reptile turned and flew back to where it had came. Caiman meanwhile brought it down and studied it. Whatever the item was it was in a small box. Just above the lid rim was a name etched into the dark hard wood of the box: _Caiman._

"Hand it over," Siena demanded. "No, it's mine," Caiman said triumphantly as he held it up to show off the name. With great glee he opened the box, expecting to find an awesome weapon and- he stared at the inside of the box in disbelief.

"What is it?" Harlon inquired noticing his expression. Caiman turned the box to show them. "A whistle."

The Careers stared at it. Even Harlon seemed surprised. "A _whistle?_ Why the hell would anyone send us a whistle?" Siena said in disbelief.

"Me," Caiman muttered, "Send me."

"Whatever," she snorted.

Harlon however was not so quick to disregard it and stepped forward for a closer look at it. "May I?" Harlon asked Caiman, motioning to pick up the small item. Caiman grunted a yes and Harlon took hold of it for a closer examination.

There was something special about the whistle, that much Harlon quickly became certain of. It was ornately carved into the form of a leaping wolf. Details and lines were gold, tips and its unusually long fangs were silver, the body of the creature blue, and the eyes like rubies. Its eyes seemed to glare at him angrily, hungrily, longing to devour him. Harlon stared at them a chill tingled down his spine. This was not an ordinary whistle.

"Blow it," Harlon said to Caiman, holding it out to him.

"Why?" he said, not taking it.

"Blow it," Harlon demanded more forcefully.

Caiman grudgingly took it, rolled his eyes at Harlon and then blew. At first there wasn't a single sound, but then slowly, a noise started up from the end of the whistle. With this noise a dark blue tendril started to trail from it. Caiman stopped blowing in surprise. The noise continued and grew louder as the blue ribbon became larger and other dark colors began to swirl out of the blue. At first it was unrecognizable, but then the song emerged, pitched in minor key, rising and falling, sorrowful and pleading, a wail growing louder then softer that raised fear in all of them.

Caiman dropped the whistle on the ground and all of them backed up, making room for the smoke which joined them. Then shapes started to dissolve from out of the unseen, one and one, pairs and pairs, wicked red eyes staring out at them. Legs settled onto the ground and bodies took shape. Then details developed and the materialization was complete.

Gaping in horror, the Careers looked at the massive forms of wolves that the whistle had summoned. They were the size of a large St. Bernard, but possessed none of its friendly features. Their eyes were red embers, eyes of devils, straight from Hell. Their upper canine teeth dropped just below the lower jaw, thin and sharp. Wicked beast claws adorned all toes. Grand muscles bulged and trembled under thick, shaggy dark blue pelts. It was as if the carving on the whistle had come alive and divided into five forms.

All waited for the horrible fiends to leap upon them and devour them, but they remained still. They turned to each person in turn before all eyes settled on Caiman and remained staring at him steadily. The pause that transpired after this was silent, so silent that Caiman's pounding heart was like thunder in his ears. Harlon was the first to come to his senses.

"They are… waiting for you," Harlon said. Caiman snapped out of his fear-filled trance and studied them. He realized that Harlon was correct. They did indeed seem to be waiting for him. But for what?

"Tell them to do something," Harlon urged.

Caiman looked around. "Bring me that branch," he said pointing to a large tree limb on the ground. Immediately one of the wolf-demons walked to the stick, picked it up in its teeth and brought it to Caiman. He took it tentatively from the fearsome jaws, but he needn't have worried, for it made no attempt to snap at his fingers. It then returned to its original position in the wolves' half circle around Caiman.

Caiman stared at the stick in his hand and a smile slowly crept over his face. "This… is very good," he said slowly, savoring it.

"Yes! Now we can take that damn turtle!" Siena said, finding the energy to rise. The knot snapped. "The turtle is mine! He's too great a prize," Caiman growled, "But you," he stared at Siena, "are nothing but a bother." Siena's eyes widened with terror as the wolves turned to her growling, feeding off of Caiman's energy.

"Caiman, what are you doing?"She demanded, keeping the shrillness out of her voice.

"Doing what I should have done when you were down," he smiled fearsomely. "Kill her," he commanded quietly, savoring the two words.

In a tremendous flurry of leaping bodies, rippling muscles, ripping jaws and animal screams they leaped upon Siena. The half ring of wolves became a single mass of bodies as Siena was smothered by the five beasts. Not even a scream was heard from Siena their descent upon her was so swift, only snarls, snaps, shrieks, and cannon shot. Finally they drew back, revealing a bloody, mass of ripped up parts which had seconds before been a living Siena.

Caiman watched with shock for a moment, but then he recovered and a smile found itself on his face. He approached the whistle on the ground and picked it up, staring at it. "With this… no one can kill me," he said quietly. He looked up and around at the other Careers and they recoiled from him. He smirked at their fear. Even Harlon was wary now. Things had very much turned in his favor.

"Seek out tributes that aren't Careers, kill them all, except the turtle. If you find him bring him alive to me if possible," Caiman said, then pointed at one of them, "except for you. You stay here with me." The creatures moved like black lightning disappearing into the forest without a twig being displaced all except for one who walked forward to Caiman's side. The hunt had begun…

Raphael sat down wearily against a tree to catch his breath. Between the bee sting and the mizzle sprites, he was utterly drained of all energy mentally and physically. While he longed to rest, he longed more to find his friends and was determined not to rest until nightfall. His throat had become dry and parched for a while now and only a cool drink of water from a canteen could quench it. A canteen he had not, only adding to the urgency with which he strove to find them.

Unknown to him, farther up the river all three of his friends were nearing each other and would soon find one another. Kyra and Thresh had been traveling in silence for the better part of an hour. Kate was following the river. Late in the evening Kate heard a sound of feet stepping in the bush and followed it. She found Kyra and Thresh resting under a large tree. Raphael was nowhere to be seen.

While the incident with the mizzle sprites had instilled in her a darkness it had not erased her intelligence. She longed to kill all the other tributes, though her desire was derived from a driving desperation to return to her family, but knew she could not do so alone. There for, she decided that the best course of action was to join up with the group again.

Announcing her presence by kicking a stone- which gave both Kyra and Thresh a great fright- she then strode forward into their small camp much as if she owned the place, as was her way of going about things. Relief rapidly flooded both of their faces.

"Kate, you're okay!" Thresh exclaimed jumping up with relief and happiness to see her fine.

"Course I am," she snorted, "why wouldn't I be?"

"One of the Careers was chasing you, that's why," he said. "How'd you get away?"

"Killed her," she responded plopping down onto the ground to take off her pack and get her canteen. "How'd you make it, Shorty?"

"I outran her," he said sheepishly, knowing she'd say something for sure. He was not disappointed.

"Ya' know you have those sharp little things called knives. They tend to work pretty decently when it comes to killing somebody," she feigned nonchalance. Thresh laughed despite her teasing, glad to hear it. "I must have forgot."

Kate noticed Kyra. "How'd you get away?"

"Killed one shot at the other," Kyra answered.

"Good. Every kill's good," Kate responded. Her voice remained level, but for some reason her words sent a shiver through Kyra. There seemed to be something behind those words…Thresh didn't seem notice. Kyra studied Kate for a moment before she let her feeling of alarm subside.

"Anyone found Raphael yet?" Kate asked. Both of them shook their heads. "No, but we've been looking."

"We should continue then," she said.

"Right. Let's have a five minute rest and then start moving again," Kyra agreed. Silently they all agreed and took their rest. When their five minutes were up they again began traveling. They headed downstream together beside the trickling water while Raphael continued to travel upstream. Traveling in contrary directions it was inevitable that they too would meet.

However, while the three craftily traveled just out of sight in the foliage alongside the river, keeping out of sight of anyone who happened to look at the river, Raphael did not, so it was Kate, Kyra, and Thresh who spotted him first before he spotted them. He also made much noise as he struggled about in his exhaustion making it even easier for them to locate him.

"Raph, over here!" Thresh called quietly. Raphael jerked around so fast his neck snapped making him wince, but relaxed when he saw Thresh come trotting out from behind a tree, followed slowly by the girls.

"Are you guys alright?" he asked.

"Yeah, we're fine. Are you?" Kyra asked.

"Bone tired," he said. He quickly relayed to them what had happened to him after the tributes started chasing him and then what happened at the river. Kate started a little in surprise when he mentioned the mizzle sprites, but it went unnoticed. Then the three quickly relayed to him how they had escaped.

"Well it's just good we're all together again," Raphael said finally. He shifted a little to drop his bag before collapsing on the ground, so relieved to find his friends he had no more energy for anything else. Kate noticed with such interest that surprised even herself the tremble of his knees as he lowered himself, the way his arms could barely lift the bag, how he couldn't bend quickly. She could almost smell his sweat his exhaustion was so clear.

So intensely did she stare at him noticing his weaknesses that Raphael turned his head and stared back at her. Her look filled him with unease. Her eyes studied him, finding his faults now that he was weakened, taking them all in as though she were the predator and him, the prey. Staring back at her predatory gaze hit a key instinctual note somewhere deep inside Raphael's head and it screamed to him; fight or flight?

Raphael had been filled with caution since the competition began, becoming more in tune with his instincts which helped guide him in this dangerous place where he inevitably was alone, fighting for himself. And it was now, again, that his survival instincts rose up again in him.

Sweat started its way down from under his arms, not from heat or excursion but from adrenaline fueled fear that he could not understand. He had the desire to look away, but his mind resisted, saying to him the safest thing to do was to keep his eyes on her. Raphael straightened a little and shifted, consciously settling his hand closer to his sai, never turning from Kate, fearing a fight. She noticed it immediately and did likewise, sensing his discomfort and his readiness for fight.

There was something in her face that was different, in her eyes was bloodlust, something unseen to him before. Never before had Raphael seen her as a true foe, always an ally, but for the first time he realized something he had unconsciously been aware of since they had first stepped into the arena. They were not friends, they were enemies. Their strengths close, near equals, deadly rivals to fight against each other.

They desired the same thing; survival, and through survival, freedom. Only one could survive, making mastery over the other an essential. To master one must have resources and strengths, weakness absent. Any weakness would give the other advantage and must be hidden and guarded, or defeat and death would follow.

And so it was that Kate and Raphael became aware of the threat they presented to each other and a silent understanding passed between them within an exchange of a few seconds. If they were to continue together as they did in the same space there would be room for only one of them, making their battle an undeniable date set at a mysterious time unknown to both until that time came in which they would know they must fight for life and death. Until that time came they were safe, but when it came, one of them would die.

Their exchange was a mysterious event even to them and was forged from instincts coming alive to enable them to survive rather than actual thought. More so confusing was it to Kyra and Thresh who looked on, though Kyra suspected danger brewing between them.

When neither moved to strike at the other they finally relaxed. They finally parted gazes with each other the group was consumed by the silence of the exchange. Kyra continued to watch them nervously. Thresh did not know what had transpired, but a sense of dread pooled in his gut and he knew something bad had just happened. Something had changed suddenly, in a few moments. For now all was well and safe, but calm never lasted long in the arena, where only one could survive…

_**He**__ watched as he always did from the same seat in the same bar. __**He**__ watched with a fiendish grin when the whistle __**he**__ had provided Caiman with had been blown, and smiled when he killed Siena with the beasts. The whistle was enchanted with a demon and had cost __**him**__ a fortune to send to the man, but it was worth it. Things would become much more entertaining now. Later when __**he**__ saw the turtle, united with his group, his exchange with Kate, __**he**__ laughed. The deadliness of his situation had finally awakened in him instincts long dead in his civil mind, but always present as __**he**__ knew, alerted when he was faced with a rival for survival. __**He **__himself had felt it with foes and danger, instincts sometimes quicker and more reliable than __**his**__ mind. It was those same instincts now that alerted __**him**__ to the man in the corner, who had been following __**him**__ now for days. The man did not approach but was always there watching __**him**__. It made him realize the man was waiting for something, though for what, __**he**__ knew not. In good time, __**he **__thought patiently, in good time….._

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**_Nothing like good old fashioned power struggles all around. I recieved quite a bit of inspiration from reading Call of the Wild, and if you read chapter 3/4 of that book in particular you may see where I got some inspiration for Raphael and Kate's and Caiman and Harlon's instinctual reactions to fight each other came from. That, and I just read an article about the Andes plane crash a few days ago which made me think about how survival above all else will make even someone of sound mind do something desperate. And I wanted to try out a similar method of writing in Call of the Wild (which by the way, I was quite impressed with reading it for the first time) and I'm fairly satisfied. Plus you guys asked for more. And now I'm rambling, so I'll shut up now. ~Silver Bullet 123_**


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